My Beginning
by TheBlondChick
Summary: This is the story of Naruto's unknown sister, April Uzumaki. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

It was cold and damp. I can't remember the last time it was warm, the last time I felt alive… Or if I ever _had_ felt alive. My name is April Uzumaki, and I've been locked in the dark for the 12 years of my life.

The place they kept me in was inside a hollow cave. At the most hollow place in that cave was a cage, and that's where I was. I didn't know what friends, family, or even what hope was, but I never complained because I didn't know there was more than my prison. I once heard the two guards', stationed in front of the cave, voices echo. They were talking about simple things, their children were going into some Ninja Academy and their wives were more than proud of them. I had always wondered if I ever had parents, if I was ever loved.

The day everything changed, it was raining and the two guards came into the cave to keep dry. My third meal was late and I was sure that the ninjas could hear my stomach growling. My eyes were glued to the entrance of the cave, impatient for the food to arrive.

"What's taking them so long?" grunted one of the men.

"It's probably the rain making the ground slippery." said the other in a more calm tone. "Besides, what would you care? It's not like it's for you."

"Come on, man. Don't be so heartless." The first man turned and knelt at the edge of the bars holding me prisoner. "Don't worry, I'm sure your food will be here soon." he told me, a smile on his face.

I'd never seen a smile before, but I could tell that it was a sign of kindness.

"Don't talk to it!" yelled the other, grabbing the smiling man and pulling him away from me.

Before anyone could say anything else, my food arrived.

"Sorry I'm late." said a snake-like voice.

I knew what the food-bringer sounded like, and this wasn't him. But by the time I realized that, it was too late. The man with the strange voice had attacked both guards and in one blow, they were dead. I stared at the killer with wide eyes as he approached me slowly. He stopped at the cage and tore the metal door off. He knelt in front of me like the other had done, and smiled at me. Only this smile was different, this smile was wrong, out of place… almost bad.

"Hello child. Tell me, why would a beautiful young girl like you be locked up in this place? Have you been a bad girl?" he mocked.

I shrugged, too scared to use my voice. He faked a surprise look, then smiled a smile that was most definitely bad.

"Do you want to find out?"

When I nodded, he reached into his mouth and pulled out a scroll covered in his saliva, which he handed to me. I took it with hesitation, not that I didn't want to know why I was here, but the saliva sort of put me off. I guess the leader of the Hidden Mountain village hadn't wasted his time sending people to teach me to read and write. Instead of opening it like I was dying to, I looked up at the man in curiosity.

"Who are you? And why would you help me?"

"My name is Orochimaru, and I'm helping you because I think you could be very useful to me in the futur." And with that, he disappeared in poof of smock.

I looked down at the scroll, sighed and opened it.

_Born on the 10th__ of October, Naruto and April Uzumaki, children of deceased Minato Namikaze and deceased Kushina Uzumaki, were separated at birth. Inside both of them is shared the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. They are unaware of each other, their parents or of the beast within them._

I lifted my eyes from the scroll. I felt consumed by anger, rage, hate. I wanted to take my revenge on these people, kill them all, then find my brother. I felt a huge burst of power surrounding me and then I slipped into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

When I awoke, I was no longer in my cage, but was lying on some sort of path. I stood up to scan my surroundings. Behind me were the gates to the village hidden in the Mountains, but something was wrong about them. I remembered how they were when I was 6 and was allowed out as long as I was with at least 10 ANBU Black Ops. It may have been during the daylight, but it was nothing like this. For starters, it was way too quiet and for finishers, I could smell something rotting.

I slowly approached the entrance, and was paralyzed when I realized what I was seeing. A body… but not just one. As I looked down the alley once filled with joy, I saw all the people who would walk down it. They were all dead with blood all over the walls of the buildings. I stared at them, wide eyed. Then I remembered.

Their screams of fear, the children crying, the women standing in front of them and the men trying to defend them from… from me.

I spun round and ran away from the village, tears in my eyes as images of what had happened, of what I'd done played in my mind like a film without sound. I couldn't feel my feet when I finally collapsed on the ground. I didn't know or care where I was as long as it was away from the Hidden Mountain village. I was uncomfortable in the position I was in, so I rolled over to come face to face with a snake. As it tried to bite me, I grabbed it's head with one hand, it's body with the other and ripped it in half. I screamed in pain when some of the snake's blood got in my eye. I took the bottom of my XL shirt and tried to get the liquid out. That's when I heard footsteps coming my way. I quickly searched the ground for something like a rock or a piece of wood to defend myself with. But I felt nothing but sand, sand… and more sand.

"I think the scream came from over here, guys!" yelled a male voice.

"Kankuro, you must be hallucinating. I didn't hear anything! Did you Gaara?" asked a female voice.

"I try to ignore cries for help." said the one so-called Gaara.

The first one's, Kankuro's footsteps stopped and I looked to where I last heard them. He was starring at me, wearing a cat-like headwear and had something on his back. That was all I could tell because it was dark and I could only see the outlines of his body. He approached me slowly and I noticed the two others walking behind him.

Once in front of me, he and the girl bent down while the third just starred at me.

"Are you alright?" said the girl at the same time that Kankuro said "Who are you?"

They both glared at each other, Kankuro shrugged after about a minute of silence and went to stand next to Gaara. I glanced back at the girl in front of me.

"Hi, I'm Temari Sabakuno. Are you hurt?"

I shook my head, but realized it was dark and she probably didn't see it so I quickly said:

"No, I'm fine."

"What's your name?"

"I'm… It's April Uzumaki."

Temari took my arm to help me get up.

"You should come to the Sand village with us." she suggested when my knees started to shake. "I don't think you can walk very far like this."

"That's okay, I'll carry her." chuckled Kankuro.

Thank God it was dark because I think calling me as red as a tomato would be an understatement.

"Back off Kankuro!" warned Temari. "I know what you're like."

That only made Kankuro chuckled some more. Gaara, who hadn't moved an inch, stepped forward.

"Let's get back to the Sand, I'm tired." he said with an icy look towards me. "This stop was unnecessary and all this girl will do is slow us down."

I starred at him in shock, now I not only felt unable to move my legs but heavy weight too. I look down (and as much as I hated to admit it) in shame. The two others noticed that.

"Hey, cut her some slack, little brother! She hasn't done anything to you." growled Kankuro.

"Whatever, just hurry up already."

Gaara started walking off. Temari asked me to jump on her back and I did as I was told. She and Kankuro ran in Gaara's direction and slowed once they'd reached him.

"You can dose off if you want, it's gonna be a long and boring journey." whispered Temari.

After glancing at Gaara one last time, I did as she asked.


	3. Chapter 3

It was still dark when I woke up, only I wasn't on Temari's back anymore. I was lying on an uncomfortable soft thing. I looked around and saw others on soft things too, only most of them either were covered in bandages or seemed sick and all of them were asleep. The only objects I could name in this room were the cushion and the quilt. I grabbed both of them and went to sleep under the extra-soft thingy, on the floor. I bet a normal person would have slept on it, but I was used to my cave floor.

* * *

This time, I was woken up by yelling.

"She isn't in her bed!"

"She must be in the village somewhere."

"We'll catch up with her, she couldn't have gone far!"

I ignored the rest of what they were talking about, fully aware the "she" was me, more interested with watching their feet scurry around and finally rush out of the room. After waiting to make sure they weren't coming back, I climbed out from what they had called a bed.

"I'm sure you thought that was hilarious." said a familiar voice.

I whipped my head round and saw a boy with brick red hair and a big gourd on his back, glaring at me with an expressionless face. It was Gaara. I still wasn't used to people talking to me, and I looked behind me just to make sure it _was_ me he was talking to.

"What are you doing?"

I quickly turned my attention back to him.

"Sorry, and no. I didn't think it was funny, only weird. No one usually cares, let alone _worries_, about me."

He lifted an invisible eyebrow at me.

"Why not?"

I regretted bringing it up now. I looked down, remembering what I did, maybe they were right keeping in that cage. After what happened, I proved them right. They were right to act like and treat me like…

"Because I'm a monster." my voice broke and I fell to my knees and started crying.

I felt alone for a while until someone put an arm around my shoulders. I looked up at Gaara, who's face was still blank. He helped me get up and I dried my tears.

"Come with me. I want to show you something." he said and dragged me outside into his very, very, very hot village.

There was sand all over the place, the buildings looked like they were made out of it too and the people looked as happy as the ones I knew used to be, before I killed them. Only there was something I couldn't help noticing, the way people's expressions changed when they looked at Gaara. It was the same way the villagers of the Hidden Mountain would look at me. When he brought me to an isolated bench, I stared at him.

"You're the same as me." slipped out of my mouth.

His eyes widened at me when I said that.

"The people from my village looked at me the exact same way. They despised me because of the beast inside of me." I slapped my hand on my mouth.

That was my secret, the reason I was hated. I wasn't sure why, but I would rather have the entire world hate me than have Gaara hate me. He was my only friend.

"You… you have a Tailed-Beast inside you too?" he managed to get out.

I nodded. He stayed silent and still. What did he mean by "too"? He couldn't… Could he? Did Gaara have my exact same problem? My thoughts were interrupted by Gaara's voice.

"Which one do you have?"

"The Nine Tails."

He looked at the wall facing us, placing a hand on his stomach.

"I have the One Tail sealed inside of me."

I looked at him in shock. He stared back at me in silence, a small smile on his face.

"I always knew there were others, but I never imagined meeting one." he said.

I embraced him into a hug, slightly squeezing him. I smiled to myself when he squeezed me back. After a few minutes in this position, the silence was just awkward.

"So, Temari and Kankuro are your siblings?" It was the first thing that I could think of.

He let go of me and leaned back.

"Yeah." was all he said.

So much for small talk. I noticed that his smile was gone and his blanc mask had come back.

"It's getting dark, we should go back to the infirmary."

I rolled my eyes.

"I don't want to go back."

"You can't leave."

I looked at him, realizing what he understood.

"I didn't mean that. I meant I want to stay here… with you." I mumbled, getting more and more red by the second.

He didn't seem to understand what I was saying or why I was blushing. He shook his head.

"Fine. We can go back to my place and you can take a shower. Don't take it badly or anything, but you stink." he said, humor in his green eyes.

I hit him on the upper arm with a grin on my face.

On the way to Gaara's house, a few people gave him looks full of hatred and disgust. He may try to hide it, but in his eyes, you could see he wished they would just go away. I reached down and grabbed his hand, smiling at him when I saw his confused look. When we got there he opened the door for me, closing it behind himself.

"Is that you Gaara?" yelled Temari, from I'm-not-sure-where.

"Yes."

She came out of the first room on my right, freezing when seeing me. I smiled awkwardly at her.

"What are you doing here? There are loads of Sand medical ninjas looking for you."

Kankuro appeared behind her, a curious look on his face. When his eyes settled on me, he gave me a wide smirk.

"Sleeping Beauty has woken up." he laughed, stepping around Temari. "And she's hanging out with Mr. Freeze." he added, glancing at Gaara.

I giggled at that, making Kankuro's smirk widened. He was about to add something to that, but Temari beat him to it.

"Hello? Can someone answer me?"

"I was showing her around the village. Gotta problem with that?" said Gaara in a menacing tone.

I saw Temari's and Kankuro's expression turn into ones of fear. Kankuro held his hands up in a surrendering position.

"No problem whatsoever, little bro."

"Don't call me that."

Kankuro swallowed loudly, while Temari stood frozen in the doorway to what seemed to be the kitchen. I turned round to give Gaara a disapproving look. He still wore his blank mask, but looked upset when he noticed my look. He took a deep breath and turned to Temari.

"Could you show April where the bathroom is, Temari?" he asked in a friendly tone. "Please?" he added when she didn't react.

When Temari recovered from the shock, she smiled at me, grabbed my wrist and pulled me up the stairs.


	4. Chapter 4

Once Temari closed the door behind herself, I locked it. I turned towards the shower and made the water run, like Temari had shown me. I took my long-sleeved, light gray shirt off, dumping it on the floor. My black slipper shoes followed, as did my black skin-tight, knee-length shorts (I also took off my underwear for those of you who are thinking I don't have any!). I stepped under the warm water, first wetting my face and my hair.

When I was done, I turned the water off, stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel and covered myself. I started drying myself when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I quickly turned to face it but was surprised to see nothing. I was starring at the sink, then my eyes darted up to see a face on a square piece of glass. The face had blue eyes and blonde eyebrows. It had waist length, straight blonde hair and also had three whiskers on each cheek. It was only after it started moving when I did that I realized that it was _my _face.

"April? Are you done yet?" yelled Kankuro from the other side of the bathroom door.

"Almost, why?"

"I gotta piss!"

I decided not to answer, just in case he might share more information with me. I quickly finished up and unlocked the door. Before I could open it, Kankuro came running in, pushed me out and slammed and locked the door behind himself. After a moment of registering the fact that I'd just been kicked out of the room, I made my way to the stairs. Half way down them, Temari came into view. She was sitting on the couch with Gaara and an adult with a small curtain hiding one side of his face. The three of them were silent, probably waiting for Kankuro to come back. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, Temari turned around and gave me a greeting smile. I smiled back and walked over to her. The man with the curtain starred at me with wide eyes.

"April, this is Baki. He's Gaara's, Kankuro's and my Sensei." she said and turned to Baki. "Baki-Sensei, this April. She's a friend."

Baki gave Temari a hard look, who in return made a face.

"What is it this time?" she asked him.

Her Sensei ignored her, looking at me instead.

"Aren't you the girl who was found in the desert?"

I stood awkwardly behind the couch, pretending to not have heard his question.

"What if she was? What would you do?" interrupted Gaara, in the cold voice he usually used.

Baki looked shocked to hear Gaara say something, especially since that something was in my defense. The silence that followed was broken by Kankuro flushing the loo, unlocking and opening the bathroom door and hurrying down the staircase. He stopped at the scene in front of him: Baki's wide eyes fixed on Gaara's unmoving form, Temari starring at the bookshelf, sighing in boredom and me turned to face him with a big smile. A grin replaced his confused expression and he walked over to us, swinging an arm around my shoulders in the process.

"Sorry about the bathroom incident." he laughed. " I couldn't hold onto it any longer."

"Don't worry, I was done anyway."

Temari cleared her throat, gaining everybody's attention.

"Where were we Baki-Sensei?"

"Um… Right." stuttered the ninja as he tried to gather his thoughts. "The Chunin Exams."

"The what exams?" slipped out of my mouth.

"The Chunin Exams." repeated Kankuro. "Genin take it to become Chunin. Which village are we going to take at?"

"The Hidden Leaf village." answered Baki.

He looked at me, then at Gaara. Temari sighed.

"April?" she said, getting up and grabbing my arm. "This is sort of a secret mission, Baki-Sensei can't fill us in on it if you're listening."

She was dragging me to the kitchen, closing the door behind herself.

"I, personally, like you and so does Kankuro. I'm even prepared to bet that Gaara has feelings for you, but Baki-Sensei and us don't trust you. I mean, for all we know, you could be a spy from an enemy village. No offense or anything!" she quickly added.

I took a deep breath and smiled at her.

"That's fine. I wouldn't blame you for not trusting me, you've only just met me."

Temari let out the breath she had sucked in and held, awaiting my reply. She gave me a quick hug before heading towards the door she had closed.

"You can go upstairs if you prefer, you don't have to stay in the kitchen." she giggled.


	5. Chapter 5

I was in Temari's room looking at the posters on the walls, she sure had good taste in boys. I was admiring her music collection when I heard a unwanted hiss. I whipped around and froze at the site. It was a white snake. I swallowed hard, taking a step back. The snake rose, looking me straight in the eyes.

"April Uzumaki, I have a message from my Lord Orochimaru."

A talking snake? How weird was this world outside of my cave?

"My Lord wants you to go to the Hidden Leaf village and to participate in the Chunin Exams. To do so, you must be on a team of three. You shall be accompanied by two others, Kabuto and Yoroi. They will-"

"Hold it!" I interrupted. "What makes you think I'm agreeing? Why would I anyway?"

The snake seemed to be expecting this reaction, I didn't seem to be have caught it off guard.

"You owe my Lord your life in exchange for what he did for you."

"Oh, for God's sake! I knew he was gonna come back for payment." I said, slamming a hand on my forehead.

"Yes, there is also something about this mission that might make you want to come."

I looked up at the suspicious snake in wonder.

"Well? Spit it out!" I demanded impatiently when it said nothing more.

The snake stayed silent for a while before sighing.

"The Hidden Leaf village is where your twin brother lives and he should be participating in the exams too." it hissed.

I opened my mouth to say something, but the reptile was faster.

"Kabuto and Yoroi will meet you at the Leaf in four days. Oh, and before I leave, this mission is to be kept to yourself and yourself only. No one must know about it." and with that, a poof of smock and it was gone.

I walked over to Temari's bed and lay down, thinking of what Naruto would be like. If he would like me, if he would love me. That's the moment Kankuro chose to open the door. He scanned the room and smiled when he spotted me.

"You can come down to the living room now. We had a vote and we think you should be filled in on what's going on."

I grinned in excitement and raced Kankuro down stairs. Baki, Temari and Gaara hadn't moved from their seats and they looked up when Kankuro and I came running down the staircase. Temari smiled, Gaara kept his blank expression and Baki seemed like he was trying to look superior to everyone in the room. We walked over to them, Kankuro sitting on the second armchair (Baki was on the other one) and I sat between Temari and Gaara. Baki was the one to speak first.

"My team and I are going on a mission to Leaf village, and they want you to come with us. You will just be accompanying us, you won't actually take part in the mission itself."

I guess I won't have to sneak out and find my way there after all.

"We're leaving tomorrow, we should arrive in two days." said Temari. "Can you handle a kunai?" she added in a curious tone.

"A what?"

They all starred at me in shock. Was a kunai something I should know about? Temari looked at Baki, who looked at Kankuro, who looked at Gaara, who sighed.

"I know it's late, but Gaara, could you help her just to defend herself before the mission?" asked Baki.

Gaara sighed again before giving me a quick glance and getting up from the couch.

"Come with me." he said when I didn't follow him.

I quickly jumped up from the couch and ran to his side. When the front door to his house was closed behind us, he took my hand in his and pulled me to where we would train.


	6. Chapter 6

Gaara had taught me to defend myself and much more which he said I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about. He taught me to talk to my demon and how to use his power, he also taught me one of his own Jutsu, the Sand Coffin. You know, apart from being rude and wanting to destroy the world, the Nine Tails wasn't so bad. I had a great time talking to him.

**__**

Flashback

__

I walked through the many corridors, with water coming up to my ankles and pure silence. I entered a room with a cage at the other end. There was a seal on the lock, and red eyes were starring into mine. I stepped forward and stopped a few meters away from the demon. He growled.

"So you finally found a way to talk to me, huh?" he mocked.

I stayed silent for a while, then did the bravest thing in the world: I smiled at him. His eyes widened in shock to my courage, or to my stupidity.

"I guess I never was alone all those years, you were there enduring the pain with me. What's your name?" I asked.

The fox took a few minutes to process the "I'm-not-scared-of-you" fact and then spoke.

"I'm the Nine-Tailed Fox, most powerful and dangerous of the other tailed beast."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, then I was suddenly exited.

"That's not a proper name, we'll just have to find something I can call you… I know! Foxy Uzumaki, it's perfect." I squealed in joy, jumping up and down.

The Nine Tails, I mean Foxy, starred at me in complet and utter shock. He seemed to be searching for something to say but couldn't find the words. I was still smiling like a moron.

"So Foxy, what's your story? How did you manage to get sealed inside me?"

"Don't call me that!"

"What? Foxy?" I asked in an amused tone.

He glared at me.

"Oh, come on! Foxy fits you perfectly, don't be so proud. I won't tell anyone you have soft spot." I teased.

"I don't have a soft spot!"

"Of course you don't, Foxy. You aren't a complet softy when it comes to talking to girls."

_"I'm not a softy! And stop calling me that!"_

__

I giggled at him and he blushed. That just made me giggle harder. I felt like I was talking to Kankuro.

"Fine, you can call me Foxy." he muttered.

I gave him a victorious smile before turning around, going back to Gaara who was probably waiting for me to come back to the real world.

"Bye Foxy. I'll come back to see you soon."

"Weird kid." I heard him mutter.

_"I love you, too!" I yelled, still walking away._

**__**

End of Flashback

Team Baki and I were making our way through the forest. It had been two days since we left the Sand and in about two hours, according to Temari, we would reach the Leaf village. At the same time, I was excited and sad. Excited because I would see my Naruto, and sad because I would have to sneak away from these four to get to Kabuto and Yoroi. I wasn't sure how I would be doing it though. I thought maybe I could loose them in the crowd or sneak out of my room at night when they were all asleep. I didn't really want to leave them, they were my friends. It was going to be hard and they were probably never forgive me for doing this. But I had no choice. We stopped in front of a huge gate which was the entrance to the village.

"I'll book the hotel, you four can explore the Leaf if you want to." said Baki and he walked off.

"Free from him at last!" yelled Kankuro when his Sensei was out of site. "I'm gonna find someone to pick on." he said before running away.

"Kankuro! Get back here!" shouted Temari, running after him.

I ran after them. After a few minutes of trying to catch up to them, I lost sight of them. I turned around to see if Gaara was behind me, but he wasn't. Instead of Gaara, it was someone else. This person had black eyes with gray hair kept in a ponytail and wore circular glasses. He wore a dark purple shirt with a white undershirt and a white obi around his waist worn at an angle. He had dark purple pants and a shuriken holster on his right leg. He was wearing a blue Sound forehead protector and dark purple gloves with open fingers. He started walking slowly towards me. He stopped once close enough to be able to touch me and smiled.

"Are you April Uzumaki?" he asked. "I'm Kabuto Yakushi." he added when I nodded.

I looked at him in confusion.

"Weren't you supposed to be here tomorrow?"

"Yes, we arrived early and a good thing too. Now we have more time to explain the mission to you. Follow me."

He turned around and jumped on the closest rooftop and, with one last glance to where Temari and Kankuro went, I jumped up and followed him.

* * *

He led me to a clearing where another man was sitting by a tree, sleeping by the looks of it. This man wore the same clothes as Kabuto, only he had a dark purple mask that only allowed you to see his eyes which were covered by black glasses and his blue Sound forehead protector also acted like a hat.

"Yoroi, wake up." said Kabuto.

The sleeping man stood up and walk over to us.

"You took your time." he said to Kabuto. "Who's this?" he asked, looking at me.

"This is April Uzumaki, the one we've been partnered with."

Yoroi looked at me up and down. When I muttered "pig" under my breath but loud enough for both of them to hear, Yoroi stopped and Kabuto chuckled.

"Anyway, back to business." said Kabuto.

He looked at Yoroi, who nodded and handed me a piece of blue cloth.

"Take it, it's your forehead protector." encouraged Yoroi.

I took it and tied it around my head.

"You can't go walking around, claming to be a Leaf Genin when you don't have the forehead protector to prove it." laughed Kabuto.

"But won't the other Leaf Genin suspect me, seeing as they've never seen me before?" I wondered.

"Don't worry, we've got that sorted out. The Third thinks you're one of Danzo's students, he doesn't have any knowledge about their identities." said Yoroi.

I nodded thinking it over. This was going to work. But… Team Baki were participating too. How would they react when they saw me in the competition? They would probably never talk to me again, consider me as a traitor. I swallowed hard. I was going to have to face them, all of them.


	7. Chapter 7

The day of the Chunin Exams had arrived and my team and I were sitting in the room of the first test where many others had already arrived too. My eyes were fixed on the entrance doors, waiting for Team Baki and Naruto to come in. We'd been here for an hour already and I'd noticed that _real_ Leaf Genin had come in. In the hour than had passed, quite a few guys had eyed me and that just made me go red and uncomfortable. I'd even scooted closer to Kabuto, who was sitting on the same desk as I was. He and Yoroi had thought it was hilarious, I, on the other hand, had completely freaked out.

Since I was starring at the doors, I hadn't noticed one of the Leaf Genin guys had come up to me until he cleared his throat. I looked at him, mentally preparing myself to be flirted with by an idiot and probably a pervert too.

"Yes, can I help you?" I asked, trying to be polite.

"I was wondering if you were new, because I would have noticed a beauty like you walking the streets." he winked at me.

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked down with a blush slowly appearing on my cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm new." I muttered, embarrassed.

He chuckled victoriously when he realized I was blushing.

"What's your name?" he asked.

I was about to answer, but before I could Kabuto was standing between us and he didn't look very happy.

"Get lost, four eyes!" spat the Leaf Genin.

Kabuto stayed perfectly calm.

"Kabuto, what are you doing?" I whispered, but everyone heard.

"Concentrate on the exams, stop flirting." he said.

I wasn't sure whether he was talking to me or the Leaf kid. The Genin sighed, turned his heels and went back to his teammates.

"Don't give your name. They might be listening." he whispered.

My reaction was to look around like a scared and worried dummy. While looking around, I noticed the Sand siblings starring at me in shock. I was about to run and give them a group hug, but Kabuto grabbed my arm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Kabuto, he's arrived. You're up." said Yoroi.

Kabuto looked at the entrance, let me go and walked away, but not before he told Yoroi to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. I sighed in irritation. Why me? Yoroi didn't take his eyes off me for the full five minutes of silence that filled the room, the same silence that was broken by an outburst from where Kabuto had went. I turned to see who was shouting and I saw _him_.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm gonna beat everyone of you! Believe it!"

He had blonde, spiky hair and blue eyes identical to mine. He was wearing an orange jacket with blue on the upper shoulders as well as up and down the front, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, a big white collar, orange pants, blue sandals and a blue Leaf forehead protector. He was grinning at everyone in a "thumbs up" position. We had the same smile. I started to get off the desk but was stopped by Yoroi.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, fully aware of the fact that the blonde boy was my brother.

Yoroi let go of my arm and I walked over to where Kabuto was, to where Naruto was. When I got there, a pink haired girl hit Naruto on the head.

"I didn't quite catch that. Could you say it a little louder?" mocked a boy with a cute white dog sitting on his head.

Kabuto noticed me starring at them.

"April? Where's Yoroi?" he asked.

All twelve rookies looked at me. I ignored them, addressing Kabuto.

"He's where he was for the past hour. I was bored and decided to stretch my legs." I answered innocently.

Kabuto frowned. I turned to the twelve rookies still starring at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"You know it's rude to stare."

"Excuse her, she's not good with people." laughed Kabuto. "This is Aaliyah."

I looked at him in confusion, but remembered what he said about not revealing my real name and looked back at the rookies.

"Hi. Who are you?" I smiled.

I couldn't help but notice one of the boys with a spiky ponytail look at me, then at Naruto and at me again. He was about to say something but the blonde girl next to him walked forward with a smile on her face.

"Hello, I'm Ino Yamanaka and these are my teammates." she said pointing to the ponytail boy and a chubby boy. "Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi."

I smiled at the three of them and the pink girl came up to me too.

"I'm Sakura Haruno and this is Sasuke Uchiha." she said, pointing to a blue hair boy. "That one over there is Naruto Uzumaki." she added in rather annoyed voice.

I gave one quick and uninterested glance at Sasuke and a huge friendly smile to Naruto. This time, a boy with a green suit on and bushy eyebrows walked over.

"Greetings to you, youthful Aaliyah." he winked. "I am Rock Lee and this is Tenten and Neji Hyuga." he said, pointing to a brunette with two Chinese-style chignon on ether side of her head and to a boy with long brown hair and Hyuga eyes.

I starred in amazement at his eyes until Tenten cleared her throat. I gave her an apologetic smile which she returned. The owner of the puppy came towards me.

"Hi, I'm Kiba Inuzuka. Those are my friends, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga." he grinned.

"And who's this?" I asked reaching to the dog, who willingly jumped into my arms.

"That's Akamaru." he said. "That's weird, he doesn't usually like anyone but me."

I started making cooing noises and cuddling Akamaru.

"Um… Aaliyah, let the puppy breath." said Ino.

I sighed and handed Akamaru back to Kiba. Ino, Sakura and Lee started a conversation with me for a bit before there was a _poof_ing sound and the room went silent. We all turned to where the noise had come from to see a man with a scared face and Leaf forehead protector covering his head and a group of other ninjas behind him.

"Alright you baby faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up!" he shouted. "It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor, and from this moment your worst enemy. I'll say this once, so listen up. There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?"

One of the Sound Genin snorted.

"No fatal force? That's no fun."

"Now if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin Exam." carried on Ibiki, ignoring the kid's comment. "Hand over you paperwork, in return you'll be each given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated."

"The what?" asked Naruto, more to himself than anyone else. "Did he say written?"

One of the ninjas in the group held out a pile of papers.

"No! Not a written test, no way!" Naruto and I cried at the same time.


	8. Chapter 8

Kabuto had given me my paperwork with my fake name and I got my number. Just as I had started to think it couldn't get any worse, I ended up sitting in between a cold Kankuro and the Rain Genin who had flirted with me moments ago. I could tell that Gaara's brother was avoiding looking at me.

"Everyone, eyes front! There are a few rules you need to be aware of and I won't answer any questions so you better pay attention the first time round." said Ibiki, turning his back to us and facing the chalkboard. "Alright, rule number one is this: the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be use to, you all begin the test with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong so if you miss three, your final score will be seven. Rule number two: teams will pass or fail based on the total score of all three members."

"What? Wait a second!" shouted Sakura, a few rows in front of me. "You're saying we all get scored as a team?"

"Silence!" Ibiki shouted back. "I have my reasons so shut up and listen. Rule number three: the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any sign of cheating and for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit score."

"What?" said the Rain Genin seated beside me.

"Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp and if they catch you five times you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored." carried o Ibiki, an evil smirk on his face. "Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here."

"Oh God!" I muttered under my breath.

"If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be. One more thing, if any candidate should get a zero and failed the test then the entire team fails."

"What did he say?" shrieked Sakura.

"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period." said Ibiki, ignoring Sakura. "You'll have one hour total. Begin!"

I looked down at the paper and was horrified to find that I didn't know any of the answers. I swallowed hard and tried anyway.

"_April, I know the answers!_" said Foxy, his voice ringing inside my head.

"_Seriously? Then what are you waiting for? An invitation? Hurry up and give them to me!_"

"_Try asking politely and I might start thinking about it._"

I frowned.

"_Foxy, I'm seriously not in the mood for arguing. Give me the answers… please!_"

__

"_Was that so hard? Anyway, what's the first question?_"

We spent our fourteen minutes with Foxy giving me the answers and me writing them down. During that time, quite a lot of teams were dismissed and Kankuro went to the bathroom. They actually hand cuffed him and had one of the proctors accompany him! Once our time was up, Ibiki stood up and stood back in front of the blackboard.

"Now that we've weeded out most of the hopeless cases, fifteen minutes to go. Time for the main event." said Ibiki. "Alright, listen up! Here's the tenth and final question, but before I give you the question there are some more rules you need to be aware of."

The back door opened and in stepped Kankuro, just on time.

"Made it just in time." smiled Ibiki. "I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening. Well? Take your seat."

Kankuro took his time and gave me a quick glance before turning his attention back to Ibiki.

"These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you."

"_Drama queen!_" commented Foxy.

"_In total agreement, as usual._" I commented back.

"Very well then. Rule number one: each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question, it's your decision.

"Wow! So what's the catch? Let's say we decide we don't want to do it, what happens then?" shouted Temari.

"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless to your answers to your other nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail and that means that both your teammates fail too. If you do accept the question but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the Chunin Exam ever again!"

"Hey, that's rubbish man!" shouted Kiba. " That's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that? There're lots of people here who have taken the test before."

Akamaru barked in agreement. Ibiki chuckled.

"I guess you're just unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before but I am now. Of course, if you don't want to take it you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year." Ibiki mocked.

"_Stay where you are, April. I'll destroy anything thrown at you._" reassured Foxy.

"_I know you will, thanks._"

"Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't want to take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go."

After a long silence, the Rain Genin next to me stood up and raised his hand.

"I'm out, that's it I'm out. I just can't do it, I'm sorry."

"Number fifty, fail." said one of the proctors. " Number one hundred and thirty, number one hundred and ten. That means you're out, too."

"Genai, Inoho I'm sorry guys." he mumbled.

After that, others followed. One by one, they left the room. I was freaking out by the second, the more people went out the doors, the more I lost faith in myself.

"_Don't even think about it! Your twin isn't going to chicken out and nor are we!_" Foxy yelled.

I looked over at Naruto, sitting next to Hinata in the third row. He was trembling, he was scared too. My eyes widened when his hand slowly started to raise. I thought he was going to quit, but he slammed his hand down on the desk and stood up.

"Don't underestimate me, I don't quit and I don't run!" he said. "You can act tough all you want, you guys aren't going to scare me off. No way! I don't care if I get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage some day!"

He sat down and crossed his arms. My brother dreamed of being Hokage? That's one pretty big dream.

"This decision is one that can change your life. If for any reason you would rather quit, now's your last chance." said Ibiki.

"No way, I never go back on my word." said Naruto. "That's the way of the ninja."

Ibiki looked around the room, studying each of us carefully.

"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else. For those of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do and that's for me to tell you… that you've all passed the first exam."

"Holy crow, I can't believe it! I passed! In your face Mountain village!" I screamed, jumping on the spot.

Sakura had another reaction.

"Hold on, what just happened? What do you mean we passed? Where's the tenth question?"

"There never was one, not a written one at least. Actually, you're decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question." laughed Ibiki.

"Wait a second!" said Temari. "So the nine questions you gave us were just a waist of time? Is that what you're saying?"

"No, not at all. Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important overwriting purpose: to test your ability to suspiciously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh, well that clears up everything." muttered Temari.

"Let me explain. You see, my objective was to test you not only as individuals, but as a team and on how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis so you'd know that everything you did, or failed to do, would directly affect your teammates. I wanted to see how you'd handle the pressure."

"Yep, I figured it was something like that, that's why I kept my cool." nodded Naruto.

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult, in fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any Genin to be expected to solve. I imagine that most of you quickly came to that conclusion."

"_Not too difficult if you've got me giving them the answers._" chuckled Foxy.

"_Tell me about it! This has got to be the easiest test I've ever taken._"

"You would have to cheat to have any chance of passing. The fact is, the test was designed to encourage cheating, almost demanded it. Of course, it would have done you little good unless you had someone to cheat from. So I disguised two Chunin who already knew the answers and had them sit in with you."

"Oh, come on! I wasn't fooled for a second. You had to be a complete doofus not to see it. Isn't that right Hinata?" said Naruto.

"Those who were caught at it failed. Better not to cheat than to cheat clumsily." said Ibiki.

He undid his Leaf forehead protector, reviling a bald head with scars, probably memories of being tortured.

"Information, it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine if a mission is a failure or a success. There'll be times you'll have to risk your life to get it."

"Man, what a mess." said Sasuke. "Scars and burn marks, what he must have endured…"

"Of course, you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bare this I mind, disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades or the loss of a village, that's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat in order to survive and that's why those who weren't good enough at it were weeded out, leaving the rest of you."

"Okay, but I'm still not getting what this tenth question thing is all about." sighed Temari.

"You're not? The tenth question was the main point of the entire exam, surely you see that?"

"Sure, but explain it anyway." said Tenten.

"As I said before, the goal was to test you not only as individuals, but as part of a squad. The final question gave you two choices, both difficult. You could choose to play it safe and skip the question, though it meant both you and your teammates would be failed or you could try and answer it, knowing if you got it wrong you would lose your chance of ever being Chunin. It was a no win situation but just the sort Chunin have to face almost everyday. For example, let me give you hypothetical mission to steal a document from an enemy strong hold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy have or how heavily armed they are. Further more, you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you and that you might be very well walking blindly into a trap. Now, do you have the abscond of taking a pass on this insane mission of saying that my comrades and I would rather live to fight another day? Can you choose to avoid danger? No. There will be many missions that will seem almost suicidal if you think about it but you do not think about it. You think only of the goal, achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a Chunin squad leader. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those who's determination falters in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks a the price of sacred honor will never be able to call themselves Chunin. At least as long as I'm here. As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I put to you. You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have past through the first gate, I here by declare this part of the Chunin selection exam completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck."

"Alright! We did it, that's one down!" cried out Naruto and I.

I heard glass breaking and a curtain with kunais attached to it's four corners was drawn between Ibiki and us. A strange woman with purple hair done up in a ponytail and light brown eyes. She was wearing a tan overcoat, with a fitted mesh body suit that stretches from her neck down to her thighs. The mesh seemed to be transparent, since I could see her body underneath. She wore a dark orange skirt, as well as a Leaf forehead protector, a small pendant, and shin guards.

"Heads up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating!" she said. "I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the second test? Good! Let's go follow me!"

The room fell silent, everyone starring at her in disbelief. Ibiki stepped around the curtain.

"You're early." he said. "Again."

"_She's a nutcase!_" said Foxy.

"How many are there? Ibiki, you let all these guys pass?" asked Anko. "You're test was too easy, you must be getting soft."

"Or it could be a stronger group of candidates this year." retorted Ibiki.

"They sure don't look it. Trust me, before I'm done with them more than half will be eliminated."

"More than half? Really?" panicked Ino.

"This is gonna be fun." chuckled Anko. "Alright, you maggots have had it easy so far but things are going to be different first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you're to meet me. Dismissed."


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Kabuto, Yoroi and I were told where to meet Anko, Orochimaru had called it The Forest Of Death. When we got there, I didn't need any explanation as to why he'd called it that. Everyone had already arrived.

"Wow! Nice place. What is it?" asked Naruto.

"This is the location for the second faze of the exam." answered Anko. "It's a forty fourth battle training zone but we call it The Forest Of Death.

"Forest of… death?" repeated Naruto.

"This place just completely creeps me out." said Sakura.

"It should." chuckled Anko. "Soon enough, you're going to find out why we call it that."

"_This is going to be a piece of chocolate cake with you to help me._" I thought to Foxy.

"_You bet it will!_"

"Do your worst! You're not going to scare me away." said Naruto. "I can handle anything!"

"So, looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy." said Anko.

In a second, Anko threw a kunai at Naruto, cutting his cheek. She disappeared and reappeared behind him.

"Tough enough to handle this?" she whispered. "You're not afraid are you? Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest."

She returned back to were she was before, leaving a frozen and terrified Naruto.

"Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all." she took out a pile of papers from her coat. "It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and then sign it."

"What for?" I asked.

"Some of you may not come back from this test and I have to get your consent to that risk otherwise it would be my responsibility." laughed Anko. "Now, I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test. Here, pass these out." she added, giving Naruto the forms. "The first thing you need to know is that this test will test everyone of your survival skills. First, I'll give you a description of the terrain on the practice field. The forty fourth battle training zone has forty four locked entrance gates, there are rivers and a forest inside. In the center is a locked tower located ten kilometers from each gate. It's in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of "anything goes" battle, to get your hands on these scrolls."

"Both of them?" asked Yoroi.

"Yes. You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll. Altogether, twenty six teams will be taking part in this test so half of those teams will be going after the Heaven scroll and the other half will be trying to get the Earth scroll. I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team."

"Okay, so how do we pass the test?" asked Sasuke.

"Your entire squad must bring both a Heaven and Earth scroll to the tower."

"That means that at the very best, half of us will fail. More, if not every team is able to get both the scrolls." commented Sakura.

"No one ever said it would be easy." said Anko. "Oh, and one more thing. The test has a time limit, you must finish it within five days."

"Five days out there?" exclaimed Ino.

"What are we suppose to do for food?" cried Choji.

"Just look around, the forest is full of things to eat. There's plenty to feed all of you." answered Anko.

"Yeah, but that's not all the forest has plenty of." said Kabuto. "There are man-eating beasts and poisonous plants in there."

"Oh, man!" complained Choji.

"Quiet down, this is why they call it survival, you know." said Ino.

"That means, with these circumstances, there's no way half the teams will pass the test." said Neji.

"With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter so we will have less time to sleep and less time to recover. It is a challenge indeed!" added Lee.

"Completely surrounded by enemies, there won't be time to rest. We'll have to keep a constant watch." said Sasuke.

"Right." confirmed Anko. "This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge."

"So, let's say mid-exam. Can we quit?" asked Shikamaru.

"Of course not! In the middle of a battle, you can say "Sorry, I quit!". Well I guess you could but it's probably gonna get you killed."

"Oh, just great." muttered Shikamaru. "This is gonna be a drag!"

"There are also some ways you can get disqualified. The first is simple, if all three members of a team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days. Number two: if a team looses a member or if a member become incapacitated and cannot continue. But most important, none of you may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reached the tower."

"What happens if it just happens to flap open and you read it?" asked Naruto.

"Let me put to you this way, young man. You don't want to know. There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents. The scroll rule is to test your integrity. Ok, we're done. Each team, take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls." she said, pointing to a table with three proctors were waiting. "After that, each team pick a gate and you'll be led inside. Oh, and I have one more word of advice. Just don't die."

I followed Kabuto and Yoroi to a tree where they sat down and started reading the form. Not very interested in it myself, I just signed it and waited for them to finish doing the same.

"I'm picking the gate!" I yelled, making both of them jump. "God, this is going to be great."

"I know it is, Yoroi and I can't wait for you to give us a demo of what you can do." smiled Kabuto.

"You what?"

"You'll be getting the second scroll and we'll be watching. Don't worry, if something bad happens we'll come and help." said Yoroi.

"I don't need help. There's nothing I can't handle."

"Just like your brother." muttered Kabuto.

I ignored him. They quickly finished signing their forms and we went to the table and got an Earth scroll, which Kabuto hid on his person. I led them to the gate thirty eight, the one I wanted to walk through and they didn't complain.

"Alright, heads up you maggots! The second part of the test has begun."

The doors opened and my team and I ran in, Foxy getting more and more exited with every step. We jumped through the trees before Kabuto stopped.

"We'll help you find them, but you're fighting." he told me.

I nodded in response and we jumped up into the trees again. After a few minutes of just following Kabuto, I sensed someone else's chakra. Both Kabuto and Yoroi sensed them too and stopped on a branch.

"Just below us." whispered Yoroi. "They're in possession of a Heaven scroll. You're up _Aaliyah_."

"Shut up." I spat and jumped down to where the enemy was. They were three boys, Sand Genin, all looking at me with a surprised look which soon turned into a smirk.

"You don't seriously think you can take us on all by yourself?" snorted the first.

"You don't seriously think I can't?" I snorted back.

The first turned to the two others.

"You can stand back and watch, guys. This will be over in no time."

"You bet it will." I said.


	10. Chapter 10

The Sand Genin ran at me, throwing kunais in the process. I dodged everyone of them and when he got close enough, I kick him in the face and sent him flying back to his teammates. He sat up, holding his cheek in one hand and starring at me in shock.

"That all you got?" I mocked.

The second stepped around the first.

"I'll handle this, Changming." he said before making hand signs and shouting. "Sands of death!"

Out of his sleeves came sand, acting like his arms and tried grabbing me. I managed to avoid them and when they stopped moving, I had my back to a tree and was smiling.

"I can do that too, you know." I smirked.

His eyes widened as Foxy's red chakra enveloped my arms, acting like his sand. I punched the ground, hands going through the earth and the red chakra arms traveled through the ground. They broke out of it once in front of them and grabbed all three of them in one hand while the other stayed open as if waiting for something to fall into it.

"Hand over your Heaven scroll." I ordered.

I tightened my grip around them, making them squeal and one of them poof into smock. A clone. Before I could do anything to stop him, the third Genin (the one who used a clone) cut the back of my thighs, making me cry out in pain. Without letting go of the other two, I used my spare chakra arm to punch him and he hit his head on a tree trunk and fell to the ground, unconscious. I turned back to the other two, trying my best to ignore the pain the Genin had inflicted.

"I'll asked you again. Hand over the scroll or else." I said through my teeth.

They looked at each other, nodded and Changming threw their Heaven scroll at my feet. I grinned at them and knocked them unconscious. Once Foxy's arms disappeared, I collapsed to the ground. Warm liquid was running down my legs, I knew what it was, but didn't want to look at it. I heard two thuds behind me and a pair of strong arms rapped themselves around me, pulling me up. Yoroi swung one of my arms around his neck and held it there. When he readjusted my legs, I gasped.

"That has gotta hurt." he muttered.

"Thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Obvious. Warn me next time I get hit, would you?" I said sarcastically.

"Somebody's in a bad mood." commented Kabuto, the Heaven scroll in his hand.

I glared at him.

"You two, head to the tower. I'm going to take a detour." he said.

I didn't have time to tell him no because he'd already jumped into the trees. Yoroi ignored my gasps of pain while he did the same, only in the tower's direction. After an hour or two, Yoroi stopped.

"It's getting dark, we should find camp for the night." he said.

He jumped up into the branches and left me alone. I tried unsuccessfully to relax. Who could relax in a place like this in the state I'm in? At every sound, I would jump. Even with Foxy comforting me, I was still panicking. So you could imagine how much I freaked out when I heard a twig break. The person I never expect to see, now of all times, stepped around a bush, an icy look in his eyes. It was Gaara. I froze in place, what was he doing here?

"Hello April." he said in cold voice. " Or should I say _Aaliyah_?"

I looked down at my hands. I would have stood up and begged for his understanding if it wasn't for these wounds.

"What wrong? Aren't you going to fight me off?"

I shook my head in response, not trusting my voice. I'd probably stutter and make an even bigger fool of myself, if possible. I looked at him, he was walking towards me.

"You think that just because I might have liked you before means that I won't hurt you now?"

Again, I shook my head. What kind of moron would think that? He stopped walking and stared at me in confusion.

"Then why aren't you defending yourself?"

"For two reasons. First, because no matter how hard you hit me, I would have deserved it anyway and second, because I can't."

I pointed to my legs with a grin. His eyes widened when he saw I was sitting in a puddle of my own blood. He swallowed hard and walked to my side and kneeled.

"What happened?" he asked in a worried voice.

"What do you think? Someone cut me with a kunai."

"Where are your teammates?"

"One went for a walk and is meeting us at the tower, the other went to find food. Now that I think about it, if an enemy comes while they're away, I'm pretty screwed." I laughed.

Gaara looked at me.

"I don't see what's so funny about that." he said in a serious tone.

"Well, you could stay with me until he comes back…" I suggested, avoiding meeting his gaze.

He sighed and sat next to me.

"I'll stay if you tell me who you really are and why you're here."

"Okay, but it's a very, very, very long story." I warned.

"I've got five days." he smiled.

I told him everything, from the Mountain village to my fight with the Sand Genin. He listened quietly, taking it all in. His eyes widened when I mentioned what had happened in Temari's room and that Naruto was my twin brother. When I was done it was dark, he took a deep breath.

"You've been through a lot." he said.

I nodded, feeling sleep take over and yarned. I rested my head on Gaara's shoulder and closed my eyes. His arm came automatically around my shoulders.

"What was that thing you said before?" I asked.

"What thing?"

"You know, that thing about you liking me." I giggled.

Luckily for him, I fell asleep a second after.


	11. Chapter 11

I was woken by violent shaking and when I opened my eyes, hoping to see Gaara's face, Yoroi was leaning over me. I frowned, confused.

"You're not Gaara." I said, only half awake.

This made him laugh and I waited for him to calm down.

"Glad you noticed I'm not him, but could you fully wake up so we can get to the tower?" he said now in a serious tone.

I rolled my eyes and started getting up. Big mistake. I screamed in pain when the wounds on the back of my thighs gave me a burning sensation. Yoroi pulled me up despite that and I somehow ended up with him giving me a piggyback as he jumped through the trees. The position I was in was stretching my legs and my wounds with it. They had sort of healed over night, Foxy told me he had something to do with that and I thanked him. I tightened my grip on Yoroi when I sensed a lot of different chakras. He increased his speed and we got to the tower in no time at all. We entered and it was more or less empty, not surprising, it was still the fourth day, no matter how dark it was when we arrived. We walked, well technically Yoroi walked, through the corridors until we found a bench. Yoroi placed me down in a sitting position on it, causing me to scream in pain.

"Be more gentle with me!" I yelled at him.

He sighed in irritation and pressed on one of my cuts, making me scream once again and punch him in the gut. He recovered quickly and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I shouted after him, unable to get up.

"To look around, to see if we're here alone."

"What about me? I can't defend myself like this." I said, but he had already disappeared around the closest corner. "Yoroi get back here!" I screamed.

My voice echoed by I had no response.

"Aaliyah?" asked a timid voice.

I turned my attention to it and was relieved with the site before me. It was Hinata.

"Man, am I glad to see you!" I said, patting the seat beside me.

She smiled at me and sat down. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw my ripped black shorts exposing my wounds. Amazing, even sitting down, you could see some of it.

"What happened to you?"

I sighed and told her about my fight. Once I was done, Kiba, Akamaru and Shino walked round a corner. Hinata turned to wave at them.

"Hey, Aaliyah. What are you doing here so early?" smirked Kiba.

"I would ask you the same thing." I laughed.

Akamaru barked and leapt off his master's head and into my arms. His tail wagging, he licked my chin. Kiba chuckled and Hinata stroked the puppy's back, receiving in her turn a lick on the cheek. She giggled and Shino and Kiba sat down on the bench. We chatted for about half an hour, Kiba making stupid jokes that Hinata and I would laugh at. I would constantly drag Shino into the conversation, seeing as he didn't talk much. Akamaru nodded of as Hinata and I stroked him and Kiba zipped him in his hoodie.

"There's a squad of three Sand Genin, otherwise I didn't see anyone else." said Yoroi, reappearing.

"There's also a squad of three Leaf Genin, I've been with them ever since you left." I said in an irritated tone.

He stopped, he obviously hadn't noticed them until now. He studied them, then turned his attention back to me.

"There's still no sign of Kabuto." he stated.

"_No surprise there. I told you he would probably come back at the very last second._" muttered Foxy.

"I'm going to keep watch for him." said Yoroi.

He was about to turn around and go away again, but approached me instead, kneeling once he was next to me.

"How are the wounds? Can you walk by yourself now?" he asked.

His hand was about to touch one of them, but I hit it.

"Don't even think about touching it." I warned.

"What wounds?" asked Kiba getting up.

"Aaliyah was injured during a fight." whispered Hinata in her shy voice.

Yoroi sighed and got up.

"At least try to walk, I'm tired of carrying you and if you can't then we can't go on to the next part of the exam." he said, walking away and disappearing.

There was a moment of silence.

"That son of a …!"muttered Kiba.

"Quiet Kiba." interrupted Shino. "Do you want us to help you to try to walk?" he asked, ignoring Kiba's glare.

"That would be nice." I said.

Kiba unzipped his jacket, lay Akamaru on the bench and stood in front of me with Shino and Hinata on either side of him. Hinata and Shino took hold of my forearms and Kiba put his hands on my waist, making him blush. The three of them pulled me up gently, a lot more gently than Yoroi did anyway, but that didn't stop me from screaming in pain when Shino readjusted my legs. Hinata and Kiba had panicked expressions as the sound broke the silence.

"Try bending your leg." said Shino in a calm voice.

I did as I was told, screaming again. I tried ignoring the pain and bent it again, biting down on my lower lip. I had tears running down my face because of the pain. I bent my other leg, resulting in more pain and more crying.

"Aaliyah, please stop!" whispered Hinata. "I have something that might help you."

She dug out of her pocket a small jar, opened it and took some cream out of it with two of her fingers. She wiped the cream on my wounds, the pain going away under her touch. I let out a sigh of relief, terrified that it might sting.

"Try it again." she said when she was done.

I bent my left leg without any difficulty, then did the same with the other. I smiled at Hinata, giving her a huge hug.

"Could we walk around?" I asked them, still hugging Hinata.

"Why not?" answered Kiba.

He walked in front of us, with Akamaru beside him, who had woken up during my screaming. I walked in between Hinata and Shino, begging for Hinata to show me her Byakugan. When she did, I touched the veins around her eyes, saying how cool I thought her eyes were. She smiled shyly in response.

"We saw the freakiest fight in the world of freaky fights, Aaliyah!" said Kiba. "It was that creepy Sand guy and three Grass Genin."

"Who won?" I asked, no idea who he was talking about.

"The Sand dude."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Seriously? Who's this creepy Sand dude?"

Kiba stopped walking and turned to face me.

"You know, that guy with no eyebrows and that weird tattoo on his forehead."

"Was he hurt?" I practically yelled.

Kiba, Shino and Hinata looked at me in confusion.

"Do you know him?" asked Hinata.

"Of course I know him and he is not creepy!" I said, glaring at Kiba.

"Chill, Beautiful." he said, raising his hands in a surrendering position. " How was I suppose to know you had a crush on him?" he added with a teasing look in his eyes.

I glared at him, resulting in him chuckling.

"Shut up, Kiba! I do not have a crush on Gaara."

"Oh, so his name is Gaara?" smirked Kiba. "Aaliyah and Gaara sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Kiba, you shouldn't annoy her." said Hinata.

He ignored her and ran off, singing that stupid song as loud as he could with me chasing him. Shino and Hinata were running after us.

"Stop it Kiba! He'll hear you!" I yelled.

"You don't want him to?" he yelled back.

He went round a corner, still singing and bounced backwards, landing on his backside. I slowed down, walking towards him with a grin on my face.

"What happened?" I laughed. "You look like you missed your turning and hit the wall."

Kiba got up, ignored me and looked at what he'd hit.

"You should look where you're going." he said.

Out of the corner stepped Kankuro.

"Interesting song you were singing." he smirked.

"He was just trying to annoy someone." whispered Hinata, who had arrived beside me with Shino.

Kankuro turned to us and gave me a cold look. I swallowed hard, the three others noticing the silent exchange.

"Hi, Kankuro." I hesitated.

"Don't hi me, _Aaliyah_." he spat.

I looked down at my feet. Gaara obviously hadn't told his brother about me.

"Kankuro." said Temari, stepping around her younger brother. "What's going on?"

She stopped when she saw me, her eyes filled with hate.

"Oh, it's you." she muttered.

Looks like he didn't tell his sister either. I sighed.

Kiba, feeling a bit at the wrong side of the corridor, sprinted to Hinata's side. Just as I'd expected, Gaara appeared behind his siblings.

"What's going on you two?"

"Bumped into the lying filth." muttered Temari.

Gaara kept his expression blank when he looked at me. Kiba sniggered, trying not to burst out laughing for some reason. Gaara shot him an icy look and he stopped.

"Aaliyah." nodded in acknowledgment.

"Gaara." I responded.

"Let's go somewhere else." he said before turning his heels and walking away with Kankuro and Temari following him.

* * *

The days passed and I stayed with Kiba, Akamaru, Hinata and Shino. On the fifth day, Yoroi came back to find me and, saying goodbye to the three Leaf Genin, we went to meet up with Kabuto. We waited for him and when he arrived, he was accompanied by Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. We went to the doors I had once again chosen and walked through them. Yoroi closed them behind us, Kabuto walked forwards and I froze in place. Orochimaru was leaning against the wall.

"A good harvest?" asked the snake and Kabuto stopped.

"Yes, even better than expected. I learned a lot about him during the second exam and I recorded all the data on this." answered Kabuto, handing him an orange card. "You want it?"

"Of course." hissed Orochimaru. "So tell me, what did you think?"

"Your curiosity is truly insatiable Lord Orochimaru." chuckled Kabuto.

"As a Sound village spy, you see things others don't. Your opinion is of interest to me."

"Oh, it doesn't really matter, does it? Whatever I think, you're the one who decides. Isn't that always the way?"

"You're a cagey one, aren't you Kabuto? I like that." he said and disappeared in a cloud of smock. "Good work." his voice echoed.


	12. Chapter 12

We were brought to a very big room, where there were other teams that had completed the second part of the exam. We stood in straight lines of three, I was behind Kabuto and in front of Yoroi. The third Hokage was there, as was Anko and Ibiki and other ninjas, probably Senseis.

"First of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam." said Anko.

"Aaliyah, you passed too." whispered Lee in enthusiasm.

"Cool, so did you." I whispered back, smiling.

"I wish you the best of luck for the third exam." he grinned, making his teeth sparkle in a weird way.

"You too."

"Alright, now pay attention. Lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you. You better listen carefully maggots." shouted Anko.

"_If she calls me that one more time, I swear I'll kill her._" snapped Foxy.

The Hokage stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"First, before I tell you what the third exam intends, I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely now, it's something all of you need to understand. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these exams. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies? To raise the ability levels of the Shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations, to be sure but it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The exams are a representation of the battle between allied nations.

"And what's that suppose to mean?" asked Tenten.

"Now, if we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighboring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each others military strength meaninglessly, those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries in a mutually selected location. That was how the Chunin selection Exams originally began."

"Well, that's great, but why do we have to go through these exams then?" asked Naruto. "I mean, it's not like we're doing this to pick Chunin to go fight."

"Well actually, there is no question that part of the point of these exams is to select Shinobi worthy of becoming Chunin. That's just not the howl story. These exams also allow for a place where Shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their backs and fight against other ninja for their very lives."

"The pride of their nation?" repeated Sakura.

"Many leaders and people of prominence from various countries are invited to attend this exam as guests and also possibly to seek Shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out and more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the strengths that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between the countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja and conversely, the request to countries that are deemed weak decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when it comes to negotiating with neighboring countries so it's important to show how many military strength our village has."

"Okay but even so, why is it necessary for us to risk our lives?" asked Kiba.

"The country's strength is the village's strength, the village's strength is the Shinobi's strength and the true strength of the Shinobi is only achieved when it's pushed to it's limits, such as in a life and death battle. This exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of it's Shinobi and hence, the strength of the nation itself. It's because this is an exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning and it's for this very reason that your forerunners fought in this test. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

"But then, why did you use the expression "friendship" before?" asked Tenten.

"But you've only remembered half of what I said. You also mustn't have the wrong idea of the exam's meaning. This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of the Shinobi, that _is_ friendship. The third exam is a fight for life with the pride of your village and your own dreams at steak."

"Well he sure convinced me." muttered Naruto.

"Any test is fine, just tell me what the details of the exam are already. I can handle anything you throw at me." said Gaara.

"Very well then, listen closely. I'm going to tell you exactly what you'll all be doing on the third exam."

The Hokage cleared his throat and a ninja appeared out of nowhere, kneeling before him.

"Lord Hokage, before you do please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed as proctor of the third exam, to speak first."

"So be it." answered the Hokage.

Hayate stood up and turned to us.

"It's nice to meet you all. There's something I would like all of you to do before the third exam. We have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one."

"_God, this just goes on and on._" complained Foxy.

"Preliminary?" shouted Shikamaru. "Just what do you mean by that?"

"I'm sorry, Sensei but I really don't see the point." said Sakura. "What's this preliminary all about? Why can't we just move on to the third exam?"

"Well you see, the first and second exams might have been too easy. The fact is we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining."

"That's, like, so unfair! I am so suing after this." I yelled.

"It's just that at this stage, we have to speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said, a lot of important guests will be watching and we can't afford to waist their time. They've come to see only the best, so if there are any of you who feel you're not in top physical condition, now's your chance to bow out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately."

"Come on, you mean right now?" shouted Kiba.

"We just finished barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a brake?" wined Ino.

"Man, what a drag!" muttered Shikamaru.

"Hey, when do we eat?" complained Choji.

"Oh yeah, the winners will be determined by one on one combats. So like I said, if there is anyone who doesn't feel up to it, now's the time to raise your hand."

After a moment of silence, Kabuto raised his hand.

"Okay, you got me. I'm out." he said.

"Kabuto Yakushi of the Leaf village, right?" said the proctor. "You can go on and step back."

"Gotcha."

Kabuto turned around and I grabbed his arm, making him stop.

"What are you up to?" I whispered.

"Have you forgotten Orochimaru's orders?" whispered Yoroi.

"I'm leaving all that to you." he chuckled. "What's the problem? For someone with your abilities it should be no trouble. This is your chance to prove yourself, Yoroi. After all, you've always wanted to take my place, haven't you? Go for it."

"You may be Orochimaru's favorite but be careful you don't push it too far." snapped Yoroi.

"Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it in mind."

Kabuto walked away and out of the room. The proctor coughed, gaining everyone's attention.

"Now then, does anybody else wanna quit?"

When nobody raised their hand, he carried on.

"Alright then, we'll now begin the preliminary round. This round will consist of one on one individual combat at full battle intensity. This is not an exercise. There are twenty of you remaining so that means we will have ten matches. The surviving candidates from these matches will advance to the third exam. As for the rules, there are none. You will fight until one dies, accepts defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing the contest. Naturally, those who are loosing are urged to accept defeat to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor, I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless, to save as many lives as possible. Now it's time to reveal what fate has been chosen for you."

He turned to Anko, who yelled: "Open the panel!"

At her words, a piece of the wall in front of us slide upwards, revealing a large screen.

"The names of each pair of opponents are chosen completely at random. Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. As there's nothing more to say, let's begin. I a moment, the names of the first two opponents will appear."

We all looked up at the screen, now showing the words: "Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado".

"Those who's names have been drawn, come forward."

Yoroi stepped around me, Sasuke also walking towards the proctor. They faced each other.

"You have been chosen for the first match, Yoroi Akado and Sasuke Uchiha. Are there any objections?"

"Not here." said Sasuke at the same time Yoroi said "No."

"Then let's begin the first match. Everyone other than the two opposing candidates will now clear the area and move to the upper level."

I turned to Lee.

"Com'on! Let's hurry and be cheerleaders of youth!" I laughed, hoping that using his expression would persuade him to say yes.

"Yes, let us do that!"

We ran up the stairs, passing everyone on the way, reached the end and started yelling: "Go Sasuke!". We were soon joined by Tenten, who started yelling too. Neji, Sakura, Naruto and two Senseis followed. Apart from Naruto, no one else joined the cheering. The match carried on, Sasuke winning. The next match was Shino against Zaku, a Sound Genin. The four of us started yelling: "Shino kick his ass!". Shino won and Zaku was taken away on a stretcher. Then Kankuro and Sakura were up. I didn't cheer for that one, because I wanted both to win. Naruto and Lee cheered for Sakura and Tenten stayed silent. When Kankuro won, not hurting Sakura badly, I yelled out: "Yeah, go Kankuro! You're the best!". I quickly looked down when Lee and Naruto turned to glare at me.

"Um… April?" said Tenten. "It's your turn."

I looked up at the screen and my eyes widened in horror when I saw who I was up against. The screen read "Aaliyah Chen VS Ino Yamanaka". Feeling a bit lazy, I jumped down instead of using the stairs, like Ino did. When we faced each other, I swallowed hard and wished her good luck and I got a smile in return. The proctor said "Begin!" and Ino jumped back, made a few hand signs and yelled "Mind-Transfer Jutsu!" in seconds. I didn't react fast enough to dodge her Jutsu and fell into unconsciousness.


	13. Chapter 13

When I woke, I was on my knees, still in the preliminary match. I looked up to see Ino on her knees with blood coming out of her mouth and a huge bruise on her cheek. I stood up and she awoke. Her eyes widened in fear when she looked at me, jumped up and screamed.

"Ino?" I asked, taking a step forward.

She took two steps back.

"What was that thing?" she whispered.

"What happened to you?"

She frowned, touching her cheek and yelped. She stared at me.

"What was that animal?" she shouted.

"Animal?"

"I went into your body and an animal was there and pushed me out, but not before beating me up."

My eyes widened.

"You mean Foxy did that to you?"

"It has a name?" she screamed.

"_She's lucky that that's all I did to her!_" snapped Foxy.

When she thought I was ignoring her, she yelled at me.

"What the hell was that creepy pet you have inside of you?"

"_What did she just call me?_"

"What did you just call him?"

I felt my teeth sharpen, cheeks and eyes burn and the tips of my fingers stretch. Ino froze and let out another cry of horror. She pressed herself against the wall opposite to me, trying to get as much distance between us as possible. Her hand flew up when I took a step forward.

"I give up!" she yelled. "Don't let it hurt me!"

She ran away, up the stairs where she was greeted by her Sensei. I followed her with my eyes, all burning, sharpening and stretching sensations gone.

"_Bet that freaked her out!_" laughed Foxy.

"Not funny." I muttered out loud.

"_God, you have no sense of humor. If Shukaku were here, he would have found it funny._"

"I'm not him." I said, again out loud.

A thud was heard next to me and a hand patted my shoulder. I turned around to see Naruto grinning at me nervously.

"They're waiting to announce the next match, you coming?" he asked.

My eyes widened.

"You… you don't hate me?"

"No." he said, confused.

I took a few seconds to react to that. I smiled at him, grabbed his hand and we ran up the stairs. While we made our way back to Lee and Tenten, all the Leaf Rookies stared at me apart from Hinata, Kiba and Shino, but their Sensei did. When we got to them, I was expecting something like awkwardness or fear, but instead received a hug from Tenten.

"You were totally awesome! We cheered for you all the way!" she smiled, jumping up and down while still hugging me.

The two Senseis, Sakura and Neji stared wide eyed as she cuddled the monster that had scared Ino. Lee joined the hug too, making the four ninjas' eyes widen even more.

"Yes, she is right. You are youthfully great!" he said, jumping up and down with Tenten.

I giggled and jumped with them. We stopped and Lee turned to his Sensei smiling.

"Don't you think she was fabulously youthful, Guy Sensei?" he asked.

Guy looked at me and back at his student, also smiling.

"Of course she was, Lee!" he said, making his teeth sparkle like Lee had earlier.

Like Sensei, like student I guess. Tenten let me go and grinned.

"I think you could even beat Neji." she said in an innocent tone, glancing at him.

He didn't appreciate that comment, and glared at me.

"It'll take more than a spark of talent to defeat me." he stated, head held high.

"Someone thinks his dangly bits are longer than they really are." I muttered under my breath, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Tenten and Naruto threw their heads back and howled with laughter. Lee and Guy's jaws dropped in surprise as my "youthful" tongue swatted Neji's ass, Sakura giggled and Naruto's Sensei didn't react. Neji frowned at his teammate and my brother laughing.

"Ino must have seen something pretty scary to have given up and ran away like that." said Naruto's Sensei.

He and Tenten stopped laughing and looked at him with confused expressions, as did Lee, Neji and Sakura.

"What do you mean, Kakashi Sensei?" asked Sakura.

Kakashi didn't answer her, he just stared at me with a knowing look.

"I think you should talk to the Hokage about this Foxy of yours." he said.

I swallowed hard, resting my hand on my stomach where he was sealed inside of me, and shook my head. I wouldn't let anybody hurt him, he may be the Nine Tailed Demon Fox but he was still my Foxy. Tenten, Sakura, Lee and Neji gave me questioning looks, but Naruto's look wasn't questioning, it was understanding. He was obviously aware of the Demon sealed within him and okay with the fact that I had one within me too, the other half of his to be exact. Kakashi and Guy gasped, gaining everybody's attention. They were both starring at me with wide eyes, then looked at Naruto and back at me again. I gave them a warning look, tightening my fists. Guy's eyes got even wider, my glare confirming his doubts.

"I don't mean to interrupt this very strange silent conversation, but…" said Neji, pointing to the screen.

I gasped when I saw who was up next. Tenten VS Temari. I turned to Tenten, gave her an encouraging hug and she jumped down to face her opponent. The fight Tenten put up was very impressive, but not enough to beat Temari. Tenten was sent up in a whirlwind and landed on her back on the tip of Temari's fan.

"Wasn't much of a match. Kinda boring." said Temari.

The proctor walked up to them.

"Winner of the fifth match: Temari."

"Wait a second!" shouted Lee, jumping down to them.

Temari threw Tenten to Lee, who caught her and lay her down, away from the now weapon-covered floor.

"Hey, nice catch." smirked the blond kunoichi.

"What is wrong with you? She may have lost but that is no way to treat an opponent who has done her best."

"Beat it." snapped Temari. "And take that sack of garbage with you."

I jumped down and grabbed Lee, who was about to attack Temari.

"Have gone completely nuts?" I whispered. "Believe me, she wants you to do that."

He relaxed and I let go of him.

"Temari! Forget them. The match is over so get up here." said Gaara. "You won, why are you wasting your time with that pathetic loser?"

Lee tensed again and I hit him around the head.

"Just relax, you hot-headed baboon!" I yelled. "Get back to your Sensei right now."

He looked at me in amazement and quickly did as I told him to. I picked Tenten up and was about to follow Lee but Temari grabbed my arm.

"I don't know what you're playing at _Aaliyah_, but you better watch your back."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a threat?"

"Maybe, just watch it."

"Look at me, I'm shaking… with amusement!" I laughed. "The thought of you beating me just makes my sides hurt."

I jumped up, leaving an angry girl with a dangerous fan, who jumped up to her brothers shortly after. Naruto and Lee were begging the screen to show their names in vain. The next match was Shikamaru VS Kin. Even though both were upset to not fight, we cheered for the lazy ninja and Sakura joined in. I constantly turned around to make sure the unconscious Tenten was okay, noticing Neji looking at her with worried eyes more than once. In the end, Shikamaru won, knocking out Kin. We looked back at the screen and Naruto jumped down in excitement. He was against Kiba.

"Yeah! It's here, it's here, it's here at last! The moment I've been waiting for! Finally, I get a chance to show what I've got!" he shouted.

"I am going to die of old age before I get my turn." complained Lee. "I just want a chance to show Sakura what I am made of, she's going to get tired of waiting. All I want is a chance, is that too much to ask?"

Sakura started cheering for my twin before Kiba got down the stairs, as did I. Lee got over his depression and joined us soon after. Tenten woke and jumped up to scream encouragements to Naruto, who was startled to hear such a loud voice from such a cute girl. Most of the action went unseen because Kiba used smock bombs to confuse Naruto, but ended up confusing himself as my brother used the Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as Akamaru. Naruto won, but most of that was because he farted in Kiba's face. Seeing as he had a sensitive nose, the fart was a thousand times more stinky than normal. Tenten and I exploded with laughter. Kiba was taken away on a stretcher and Hinata went down to talk to him before he went. Her eyes widened in fear at the screen that read: Neji VS Hinata. I heard a chuckle behind me and turned to see Neji smiling at the screen in an evil way.

"Go easy on her." said Tenten.

Her request was ignored as he jumped down to face his opponent. Their fight looked like dance moves, I was so taking them to a disco after this. Though it might not happen because Hinata was shy and Neji was arrogant. Mr. Arrogant won, leaving an unconscious Mrs. Shy following Kiba in a stretcher. We waited for the screen to show the next names and Lee jumped down to face his opponent, Gaara. Lee put up one hell of a fight, getting through Gaara's defense way more than once. The sand man used Sand Coffin on him, breaking his left leg and arm. Guy stopped the match and went with Lee to the hospital. The next match was the two remaining Genin, Dosu and Choji. Sakura, Tenten, Naruto and I screamed for Choji, who lost quickly.

The third Hokage asked the winners to step forward.

"In the final rounds, each of you will put your battle skills on display, you'll demonstrate the power and control that you've achieved in your respective disciplines. Accordingly, the final battles will commence one month from now."

"Wait, we're not going to do it right here and now?" asked Naruto.

"This is to provide a suitable period of preparation."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Neji.

"Simply this, in addition to announcing the conclusion of the preliminary matches to each countries leaders, we must also have some time to prepare and distribute the summons for the final selection. Not to mention that you examinees are going to need time to prepare for something that is this important."

"Look, I don't really get what you're trying to say. What's the point of this?" asked Kankuro.

"I mean that to know your adversaries and prepare yourself you'll need time. Even though to this point all the battles have been real battles, as I'm sure you can all attest, they were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an unknown enemy but that's no longer the case now that you've battled each other. So in order to make the finals fare and just, we're giving you this month. Each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard and learn some new tricks because by now, everyone here knows your techniques so using your old tired tricks is a sure way to loose in the final rounds and remember to get some rest as well. Now with all of that behind us, I'd like to begin winding things up but before we can bring this to an end, first there is one more important matter to take care of for the final rounds."

"_Begin_ winding things up? I may have my whole life ahead of me old man, but I'd like to spend it other than listening to you and your five hour long speeches!" I shouted.

"In a calm orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box Anko is holding." continued the Hokage, ignoring my outburst.

"Everyone just stay where you are, I'll come to you." she said, walking towards Dosu. "Just take one."

Dosu pulled out a small folded piece of paper and Anko moved over to Naruto, who did the same. Once everyone had taken one, she went to stand back next to the Hokage, who nodded at Ibiki.

"Good, now everyone has one, going from left to right, tell me the number that's written on your slip of paper." said Ibiki.

"I've got nine." said Dosu.

"Number one, of course!" stated Naruto.

"Seven." said Temari.

"Five." muttered Kankuro.

"Three." said Gaara.

"Eight." said Shikamaru.

"Two." said Neji.

"Six." said Shino.

"Ten." I smirked.

"And that means Sasuke is number four." stated Ibiki.

"Right, now I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament is going to work." said the Hokage.

"Hein?" squealed Naruto.

"Is that what the numbers are for?" said Shikamaru in a sarcastic tone.

"Ibiki, you may reveal which ninja have been pared up." said the old man.

"Yes sir."

He showed us the board he was holding. Naruto was against Neji, Gaara against Sasuke, Kankuro against Shino, Temari against Shikamaru and me against Dosu.

"_That shouldn't be too hard. All you have to do is wear some earplugs and his attacks are useless!_" laughed Foxy.

I giggled in response, making Dosu think that I was underestimating him. I earned a glare from him and a thumbs-up from Naruto.

"May I ask you a question?" asked Shikamaru.

"You may." answered the Hokage.

"If this is a tournament, does that mean there's only going to be one winner? Only one of us is going to become Chunin?"

"Actually, it's quite the contrary. There are going to be several judges for the final rounds, including myself, the Shinobi leaders and the Kazekage. The Lords from various countries that ultimately will be assigning your missions to you. Through this tournament, these judges will be able to make an evaluation of your abilities. They will then decide whether any or all of you possess the qualities required of a Chunin. Even if someone looses the first round, they could still become a Chunin. The advantaged of fighting more rounds in the tournament is in getting more chances to display your talents in front of the judges who will decide your fate. Does that answer your question, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sighed in response and looked away from the Hokage, continuing his speech.

"I thank you all for your patience. Now let us adjourn until next month."

We turned and started walking towards the exit but stopped at the sound of the Hokage clearing his throat, as if expecting something.

"Aaliyah, could you go straight to my office please?" he asked.

I frowned but nodded and walked away, joining up with the others.


	14. Chapter 14

It took me a while, but I finally found the Hokage tower and behind it was a cliff with four faces carved into it. I knocked on the Hokage's office and walked in after hearing "Enter!". The old man was sitting behind a desk at the far side of the room. I closed the door slowly, not turning my back to him. His eyes moved from the paperwork on his desk to me.

"Tell me what you know." he said.

"You what?" I frowned.

He sighed and pointed to a chair in front of his desk. I sat down, slouched and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Kakashi and Guy told me about who you are, April."

I tensed at the sound of my name, I'd been unmasked.

"I just want to tell you what you can share with Naruto… and what you can't."

"What's that suppose to mean? I'm going to tell him everything." I spat.

The Hokage opened his mouth but was interrupted by a knock on the door and without waiting for a reply, Kakashi walked in and closed the door behind himself.

"No you're not." he said in a dead serious tone. "I wonder what kind of greeting Lord Hokage would get if he went to the Hidden Mountain village. Would it be people cheering, or would he be greeted by a massacred village with no survivors?"

I shrugged, not turning to look at him.

"I don't know. Maybe you should go and find out." I chuckled.

"We have. How did you find out? Who told you?"

"Calm down Kakashi!" said the Hokage. "Was it the Mountain's leader?" he asked me.

I snorted and that made Kakashi walk over to me and pull me out of my chair.

"Who killed them all?" he shouted in my face.

"They got what they deserved." I muttered. "If you had been at my place for the past twelve years, you would feel the same way."

Kakashi's eyes widened and he let me go.

"April… You mean…" he stuttered.

"No, I didn't. Foxy did."

…

"Who's Foxy?" asked a clueless Hokage.

"The name she came up with for the Nine Tails." answered Kakashi in a disgusted tone.

I sat back down, ignoring Kakashi.

"So what's the deal? I can tell Naruto that I'm his twin sister, right?"

"You're not getting out of this that easily! Tell us who told you!" yelled Kakashi.

"Kakashi! Will you stop screaming orders in my office and just sit down!" yelled the Hokage, silencing the loud ninja who sat down. "Now, we'll discuss the part you can't tell Naruto after you've answered a few questions."

I sighed in irritation and crossed my arms over my chest.

"How much do you know?" asked the old man.

"I know that Naruto's my twin brother, that I have the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed within me and that my parents were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki."

"Who told you this?" asked a calmed down Kakashi.

"Orochimaru gave me the Mountain village's secret scroll and it had it all in it. He's the one who saved me from my cage in a cave that I'd come to call my home after all those years and the one who guided me to Naruto."

Their eyes widened at Orochimaru's name. I ignored that and carried on.

"He wanted me to participate in the Chunin Exams and teamed me up with Kabuto and Yoroi. He wanted information on Sasuke Uchiha and then got interested in my brother. The Exams are just a distraction, he's planning on destroying this place. He'll be at the final rounds and will attack and kill his Sensei. I think his name was Sarutobi, or something like that…"

They stayed silent. Kakashi got up from his seat slowly, starring at the Hokage. The old man recovered and chuckled.

"Now that that's done with, let's talk about you and your brother. You can tell him you're his sister, that you have the other half of the Nine Tailed Fox sealed within you and you can tell him about your past. On the other hand, you can't tell him about who your parents were or about your dealings with Orochimaru. Is that perfectly clear?"

I nodded.

"Tomorrow, I will ask both of you to come to my office and we'll tell him." smiled the Hokage. "You can go and train now."

I smiled and walked towards the exit, but stopped at the site of a picture of a man resembling Naruto and I. I turned back to the two men, now whispering urgently.

"What did my parents do?" I asked.

They turned their attention to me.

"Your mother was the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero of the Leaf and your father was my Sensei and the Fourth Hokage." said Kakashi.

I nodded slowly and walked out of the office and into the streets. Villagers filled the roads, kids ran around crazily and it reminded me of the Mountain, without the AMBU Black Ops. Too caught up in my thoughts, I didn't notice Tenten running to me so you can imagine my surprise when she grabbed me and gave me a hug.

"I've been looking all over the place for you! You wanna train with me?" she asked, jumping up and down.

"Sure!"

I followed her to one of the training grounds and when we got there, Sakura, Ino and Hinata were sitting on the floor, chatting. They got up as we approached them, Ino standing slightly behind the two other girls. I greeted them with a smile.

"Are you girls gonna train with us too?" I asked in excitement.

"Yeah, this'll be awesome!" grinned Sakura.

Hinata smiled in response and Ino didn't take her eyes off me. She must still be terrified by what happened at the preliminaries.

"_Okay, maybe I overdid it. How was I suppose to know she was a scaredy-cat?_" muttered Foxy.

"Ino, I'm sorry for scaring you." I said.

She looked chocked that I was talking to her. She took a deep breath.

"It's okay."

"I would never hurt you on purpose. Could you find it in yourself to put it behind us and let us be friends?"

She smiled and gave me a hug.

"Well? I gathered us to train, not to go all girly on each other!" said Tenten and attacked Hinata, who screamed and ran up and down the training grounds while Tenten chased after her.

Sakura laughed as she ran over to try and save Hinata from Tenten's kunais. Unfortunately, she only turned herself into a target and started running away from the crazy kunoichi, clinging on to Hinata's arm. I grabbed Ino's hand and we jumped on Tenten and all three of us hit the ground. After a moment of hysterical laughter, I looked around for the tow other screaming girls but the grounds were deserted. I nudged Tenten and Ino and they didn't seem to know where they'd wandered off to either. We stood up and started yelling out their names until we heard giggling and saw them running towards us with water bottles. Tenten and I had the reflex to run away, but Ino didn't catch what was going on until Sakura sprayed her and Hinata ran after us. Once all five of us collapsed on the dirty ground in exhaustion, Tenten spoke instead of screaming.

"That was a weird training session."

"You mean it was a fun training session!" sighed Ino.

I felt someone staring at me and sat up. I looked at the entrance of the training grounds and saw Neji and Lee walking towards us. I stood up and received a hug from the green suited ninja and a cold shoulder from the "I'm-better-than-everybody" one.

"How are you, Aaliyah? I was coming to train with Neji, but we watched you five train instead." said Lee.

The smile that I was currently wearing disappeared.

"If you can actually call what they were doing training." muttered Neji.

"When I want your advice Neji, I'll ask for it. Okay?" I snapped.

He simply ignored me, like he did before. God, how I wanted to hit that guy!

"We were just being silly." said Tenten. "Sorry if I wasted any of your time, Neji."

"Ninjas shouldn't be _silly_, as you put it. You will never become Chunin if you carry on like this." he stated.

I stared in disbelief as Tenten nodded, not meeting his gaze. I turned to Neji, irritated.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I yelled.

Again, he ignored me and turned his back to me. With rage burning up inside me, I grabbed one of the water bottles that was half full and sprayed him. Lee and Tenten gasped as Hinata, Ino and Sakura laughed. Neji stayed still, his hands curled into fists.

"You'll regret that." he said through his teeth.

Lee grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the training ground's exit, muttering something about letting it go. Once they were gone, I turned to a wide eyed Tenten and raised my eyebrow.

"Sorry if I wasted any of your time, Neji!" I mocked in a squeaky voice. "Why didn't you say anything about you being in love?"

"I'm not in love!" she yelled, blushing.

Seeing the blush, Ino and Sakura squealed.

"I think it would be nice for you two to go out together…" whispered Hinata, eyes down and playing with her fingers.

That made Tenten blush even more.

"This is getting more and more interesting." smiled Ino. "Don't worry Tenten, you're not the only one who's got a crush on a guy that's completely clueless. Take Hinata and Sakura for example. They've been chasing Naruto and Sasuke for years and they haven't even noticed. Naruto because he's an idiot and Sasuke because he's more interested in me."

"You?" yelled Sakura. "You've been chasing him too with no results! Ino Pig!"

"What did you just call me, Billboard Brow?"

Both of them yelled at each other until we heard a sniff from Tenten. I rapped my arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, don't cry."

"I want to tell him every single time I see him but I know he'll never feel the same way." she sobbed. "He's a cute and skilled Hyuga, and I'm just… nothing!"

"I used to think the same thing about myself a long time ago until Ino told me otherwise. She told me that I was a flower still waiting to bloom. That's what you are Tenten. The day you decide to tell him will be the day you bloom." said Sakura.

Ino stared at her with watery eyes.

"You remembered that?" she managed to say.

"Of course I did."

Ino jumped on Sakura, sobbing like Tenten and Sakura started sobbing too. I looked at Hinata, the only girl apart from me who still hadn't broken into tears. She was still playing with her fingers, uncomfortable about being around cry babies.

"So, you've got a crush on Naruto?" I said.

She looked at me and nodded.

"When are you planning on "blooming""? I smirked.

The sobbing suddenly stopped, waiting for her answer.

"Um… I… I'm not planning on doing anything." she whispered.

"What?" cried Ino.

"He's interested in somebody else…" she said, glancing at Sakura.

My eyes widened as did Ino's and even Tenten looked up to stare in shock. Sakura, on the other hand, didn't register Hinata's glance and looked very clueless.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked.

"I thought you were after Sasuke? Why do you have to steal Naruto too?" screamed Ino.

Sakura looked even more confused than she did before.

"I thought it was Aaliyah who was stealing Naruto…" said Tenten.

I froze in shock at her words and all eyes fell on me. I let go of Tenten and swallowed.

"Yuck! That's gross! Me and Naruto? No way!" I yelled at them.

I made disgusted noises as I tried to get rid of the image of my twin and I kissing. Ino and Tenten giggled as I ranted about not liking him, but was interrupted by Hinata.

"Why don't you just say that I have bad taste in guys while you're at it!" she shouted, stunning all four of us.

She kept glaring at me with her arms folded across her chest until she realized what she'd just said. She quickly looked down and started playing with her fingers as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Aaliyah. It just slipped out…" she whispered.

"Way to go, Hinata! Cha!" yelled Sakura.

"Talk back to Neji in front of Naruto and he'll be in love with you in no time." said Ino.

"That's a suicidal mission, and don't forget that Neji's mine so you can't take anything out on him or you'll be dealing with me." warned Tenten.

"Then no annoying Sasuke or Naruto either." agreed Ino. "What about you, Aaliyah? Who do you have a crush on and not want us to annoy?"

"Um… I don't have anybody."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, Ino and Tenten crossed there arms over their chests. They weren't fooled.

"_Why don't you just tell them? They won't tell. And even if they plan on doing so, I'll get them for you._" encouraged Foxy.

I sighed.

"I think I'm in love with Gaara Sabakuno…" I admitted.


	15. Chapter 15

I had booked into a cheap hotel for the night and lay on the bed, waiting for the sun to rise impatiently. I wanted to see Naruto again, to have him know about me, about us. Morning took forever to arrive, but still arrived. I jumped out of bed, got dressed, took a chocolate bar out of the fridge and ran out the door. I ran down the hall of the hotel, making people jump out of my way. The streets seemed to be packed no matter how early in the morning it was and I walked fast instead of running and knocking everyone over. I'd calmed down a little, but instantly got exited and impatient when I saw the Hokage tower. I started running again when there were less people in my way and reached the place in no time. I ran up the stairs, through the door and bumped into the Third Hokage who was making his way to his office. Kakashi caught him before he hit the ground and I grabbed onto the doorknob.

"April? You're early. I wasn't expecting that the ninja I sent would contact you so quickly." said the Hokage.

"What ninja?" I asked.

"Oh… Well he'll surely come back after awhile." he smiled. "Let's go to my office."

I nodded and followed him there. Kakashi stayed by his side, a worried look in his eyes. The Hokage sat in his chair behind his desk, Kakashi stood next to him and I sat down on one of the two chair in front of the desk. The silence that was dominating the room was interrupted by a door slamming shut and the doors to the Hokage's office flew open. Naruto stepped in proudly with his usual grin plastered to his face.

"I knew you'd come round to giving me a solo mission, old man!" he said, no having noticed either me or Kakashi.

"You are quite mistaken, Naruto. What I have for you is something far more important than any mission." chuckled the old man.

Naruto looked confused. He looked at Kakashi, then at me and his grin returned.

"Aaliyah! What are you doing here?"

I looked away from him. He didn't even know my real name, I hated that fake one. The Hokage cleared his throat and gestured for Naruto to take a seat.

"I think introductions are in order." he stated and turned to my brother. "This young lady you know as Aaliyah came all the way from the village hidden in the Mountains, she participated in the Chunin Exams and put her life on the line for the person that was most precious to her."

Every second that passed, Naruto looked more and more confused and clueless.

"She was searching for her twin brother, Naruto." carried on the Hokage. "Her name is April Uzumaki and she's been looking for you."

Naruto froze. I thought he was paralyzed with shock until his eyes started to water and tears ran down his cheeks. A smile slowly appeared on his face as he turned to look at me. I smiled back, tears running down my face too. We stayed staring each other in the eyes for a long silence. I was the one to stop the staring as I slowly reached out to him and pulled him into a tight and loving hug. He squeezed me back almost instantly and buried his face in my hair. His tears went through my shirt and ran down my back. Mine were probably doing the same thing.

"I always dreamed of having a family." whispered Naruto.

"You don't have to dream anymore, Twin. This is real, I'm really here." I whispered back, holding back a sob.

"I love you, Sis." he chuckled.

"I love you too, Bro."

We hugged each other for what seemed like forever but Kakashi cleared his throat and ruined the moment. We turned to him with irritated looks.

"I presume you will be moving in with Naruto straight away." smiled the Hokage. "Your bed was added to his room while you were gone."

"Wanna see our home, April?" asked Naruto.

I nodded enthusiastically and we ran out of the tower hand in hand, towards my new home. While in the streets, we received many disapproving, surprised and shocked looks from the villagers, but Naruto and I ignored them an made our way to his, I mean, our place. He lived in an apartment with a living room-kitchen space, one bathroom and one bedroom. He showed me around quickly, leaving his room for last. When he opened the door, he seemed pretty miffed that it was clean. Didn't he clean up after himself or something? I stepped in. His bed was on my left next to the window, to my right was the drawers we would obviously share and at the far end on the room was my bed, identical to Naruto's only with green sheets.

"It's perfect." I murmured, mostly to myself.

"It's home." agreed Naruto.

I turned to see him resting on the doorframe, arms crossed with a smile on his face. I stared at him, amazed he was real. My stomach growling broke the silence between us.

"My bad, I didn't eat much this morning." I laughed.

"That's okay, I'll take you out for lunch at my favorite restaurant." said Naruto excitedly.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the apartment and back into the streets. He led me to a small place with the writing "Ichiraku Ramen" in bright red on the front. He pulled the curtain to the side and gestured for me to enter. I sat on one of the stools and Naruto sat next to me. Behind the counter was a man wearing a white hat and apron. He smiled at Naruto the looked at me.

"April, this is Teuchi, the best cook in the world." stated Naruto.

I smiled at the old man.

"Nice to meet you. What can I get you this time, Naruto? The usual?" asked Teuchi.

"You read my mind and April will have the same." he smirked.

The man turned to the cooker and started preparing our meal.

"So are you kids on a date?" asked Teuchi.

"No!" burst Naruto and I.

Teuchi chuckled, mumbling something like "Of course you're not…". Naruto heard this and got worked up.

"I swear I'm not on a date, she's my twin sister!"

Teuchi stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at me closely. When he saw Naruto girl version, his eyes widened. Naruto grinned at that, he was going to present me like that to everybody he knew.

"Get over it, old man. I'm going to tell Iruka Sensei right after we're done eating." insisted Naruto.

Teuchi quickly turned round and served us our bowls.

"Two bowls of Ramen." he said.

Naruto scoffed his and drank the juice in less than ten seconds. He turned and saw that I hadn't touched mine. After a few impatient grunts, I mimicked his movements. Once I'd put my bowl down, Naruto put the money down, grabbed my hand and pulled me down the streets. This time, he led me to a school and told me that Iruka was a teacher there, at the Ninja Academy. While we were running down the halls, the bell rang and kids ran out of the classrooms like wild animals. He dragged me to the room at the end of the hall and ran in. The place had no kids in it, only a man with brown hair in a ponytail, dark eyes and a gash across the bridge of his nose. He looked surprised at first, but then smile at Naruto. He must be used to it.

"Iruka, you'll never believe who this is." yelled Naruto, jumping up and down on the spot.

"Your new girlfriend?" he chuckled.

Naruto and I sighed in irritation. Was everyone going to say that?

"No! This is April, she's my sister."

Iruka looked at me in amazement.

"Aren't you suppose to be in the Mountain village?" he asked.

"It was… destroyed." I muttered, looking down.

"Well, I'm introducing her to everyone, so we better be going." said Naruto after a long pause. "Could I give you a piggyback, like that we'll go faster?"

I nodded and jumped on his back and he ran out of the Academy. He jumped up on the closest roof and jumped from roof to roof, screaming "I've got a sister! A twin sister!". We passed Shikamaru and Choji, who were watching the clouds. Tenten, Lee, Neji and Guy were walking in the streets and stopped at the sound of Naruto's voice. Sakura, Ino and Hinata were there too and were just as shocked as the other four. Further on was Sasuke, leaning against a wall, acting all cool. He stared at us with his mouth hanging open as we passed. Many villagers stopped to listen to Naruto's words and watch us pass. We reached our apartment and I got down from him.

"Well, I think everyone heard that." he chuckled as he unlocked the front door.

We walked in and he crashed on the couch. I closed the door behind me and did the same, landing on him with an "Oof.".

"That was fun." I said.

"It was hard too. You were the one riding, I was the one being ridden."

"Did you see Sasuke's face when he saw us?" I laughed.

"You bet I did. Man, why didn't I have a camera? Did you see Neji's face?"

"Did you see Shikamaru's face?"

"Priceless!"

We laughed for ages at the faces our friends had made. He told me about how his Sensei had dedicated his time to training Sasuke and given him the pervy Ebisu, who had been defeated by Naruto with his Sexy Jutsu. Ebisu was the pervert when Naruto had a _Sexy_ Jutsu? He said he would show it to me later and teach it to me. I almost told him that I would teach him Gaara's Sand Coffin, but I quickly bit down on my lower lip. I'd already lied to Gaara, I wasn't going to give away his secrets too. When we realized it was dark outside, we hit the sack. In the drawers was a black nightdress for me and I had to spell it out for Naruto why I wanted him to leave the room. Once I was changed, I told him he could come in and he smiled at the site of me. I gave him a twirl and he smirked, said that it was hard to believe he was related to an angel. He didn't mind about me seeing him undress, of course he told me to close my eyes when he was about to take his underwear off. He didn't have to tell me twice, I hid under my covers. When we were in bed and the lights were off, I was too awake to fall asleep.

"April? You still awake?" asked Naruto after a few minutes.

"Yeah, I can't sleep. You?"

"Same. I'm scared to."

"What are you scared of?" I asked, sitting up in my bed to see he sitting up and was starring out of the window.

"I'm scared that if I fall asleep, when I wake up you won't be here. That this was just a dream." he said, his eyes not leaving the window.

I got out from underneath the covers and crept over to his bed and snuggled in next to him. He turned to stare at me in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm scared too. If I hold onto you and you hold onto me, we'll have the comfort of knowing that we're both here with no intention of leaving."

He smiled at me and lay down next to me and we fell asleep hugging.


	16. Chapter 16

I woke up with the sunlight on my face. I looked up to a sleeping and drooling Naruto and got out from within his arms and snuck out of the room to the kitchen. I opened the fridge to make him a breakfast in bed, but the only thing that looked edible was a yogurt and a ramen pocket. I sighed as I closed the fridge and went to the counter to write down what we would need on a shopping list. I used both sides of the piece of paper and by the time I was done, Naruto was awake.

"April?" he shouted.

"I'm in the kitchen."

He ran out of his room and stopped at the site of me. He had watery eyes and I ran over to him. He pulled me into a tight hug, taking me by surprise.

"I thought you were gone." he cried.

"That's so sweet, but you can't be with me 24/7." I laughed, hugging him back.

He laughed and let me go.

"Wanna bet?"

"No, I'm good."

I sat at the table and he opened the fridge. I was going to say there wasn't any thing there, but he closed it and opened the ramen pocket.

"You're not going to eat that are you?" I asked.

Too late, he'd already eaten half of it. I sighed and went back into our room to get changed but was followed by a curious-ramen-eating blond.

"Naruto, could you go away please?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm gonna get naked and don't want you here to watch!" I shouted.

He turned red and ran out, slamming the door behind himself. I smiled and got changed in peace. When I came out, I went to the bathroom and brushed my hair and teeth. I walked over to the kitchen and took the shopping list.

"I'm going shopping, wanna come?" I shouted.

Naruto came out of the bedroom dressed and ran passed me.

"Can't, I've got a mission." and he disappeared down the hall.

I made my way down the streets, ignoring the stares of practically every villager. Everyone must have known who I was now. I stopped in front of a chocolate store, hesitated and walked in. I bought five Milka chocolate bars, a bag of Maltesers and sat down on the couch, pulling Gaara down with me. I opened the bag and offered one to him. He took one and ate it. His expressionless face didn't last much longer because he smiled and took another. We stuffed our faces with the chocolate balls and talked for about an hour.

"Why aren't you like this with Temari and Kankuro?" I asked.

"It's not the same with them."

"What makes it different with me?" I smirked, scooting closer so our arms were touching.

He looked away, but not before I saw him blush. I giggled and he swallowed hard.

"What's wrong, Gaara?" I asked in a flirty tone.

He turned back to me with a confident look in his eyes. I was going to repeat my question in a serious tone, but was interrupted when his lips crushed mine. I froze as he kissed me, slid his hand up and down my arm. Gaara was _kissing_ me, _touching _me.

"_Come on, April! I know you like him, kiss him back or he'll think you don't feel the same way!_" yelled Foxy.

I knotted a trembling hand in his red hair and rested the other on his chest. My hands stopped trembling when he placed one of his on top of the one on his chest and squeezed it. I squeezed it back and tried to get closer to him. He felt this and pulled me up on his lap. His tongue licked my lower lip, asking for entrance and I obeyed willingly. His tongue slipped into my mouth as mine slipped into his. I heard him grunt as I twisted my hand in his hair but we both froze when someone knocked on the door. Gaara gave me a quick kiss before turning to sand and disappearing. I walked over to the door, opened it and was greeted by Tenten, Ino and Hinata. They didn't look exactly what you would call happy, more ticked off. Tenten pushed me aside and walked in, followed by Ino and Hinata. Ino closed the door and they all looked at me with angry eyes, even Hinata.

"So your name's April now?" shouted Tenten.

"And your Naruto's twin sister, too?" added Ino.

"I can explain!" I said. "I didn't have any choice but to lie to you, they would have killed me."

The three of them froze.

"What?" whispered Hinata. "Kill you? Who?"

"I… I can't tell you."

I looked down and was surprised to have someone's arms rap themselves around me, followed by two other pairs. They were giving me a group hug, even if I'd lied to them. I hugged them back, tears running down my face.

"I love you girls." I sobbed.

"We love you too, April." they sobbed back.

We stayed hugging for about a minute or so, until a voice interrupted our moment.

"Um… Hi April, having fun?" asked Naruto.

We let go of each other. I thought at how I was glad he surprised me hugging with Ino, Hinata and Tenten and not kissing Gaara. He would have freaked!

"Yeah, how was your mission?" I asked, whipping my tears away.

"It was great, it would have been better if it weren't for Sakura being upset about Sasuke."

"What did he reject her again?" giggled Ino.

"No, she was sad because he's in hospital and so is Lee. Apparently, when we saw Sasuke yesterday, he'd snuck out of his hospital room."

"What? Lee's in hospital?" I shouted.

"Who cares about Lee? Sasuke's in hospital?" shouted Ino.

I glared at Ino. Who cares about Lee? I do. She had better take that back or I'll…

"Hi, Hinata." said Naruto.

We all turned to grin at Hinata, who was blushing like mad.

"Hello, Naruto…" she whispered.

I held back a laugh, as did Ino and Tenten. Naruto didn't get why she was red.

"Are you hot Hinata?" he asked.

Ino exploded when Hinata fainted, as did Tenten. Naruto and I, on the other hand, grabbed her before she hit the floor. I shook her a bit and she opened her eyes, but when she saw Naruto's face so close to hers, she fainted again. That happened about three times before I asked Naruto to let her breathe. Once she was okay, she, Ino and Tenten left and I made dinner while Naruto took a bath. I made steak and French fries and I set the table and put the food on the table. I called for Naruto, but didn't get a response. I walked over to the bathroom door and was going to knock on it but it opened all by itself. The result of that was me seeing my brother naked, him screaming and me slamming the door shut before bursting with laughter. When he came out, I'd calmed down and we didn't talk about it.

The next morning, he offered that I train with him and I agreed enthusiastically. We were going to train with this Ebisu for the first time. We met him at the hot springs and he wasn't what I'd expected. He had dark hair and was wearing trademark sunglasses. He also wore his forehead protector like a bandana. He didn't look like much and when he told us he was going to teach us how to walk on water, I decided he was officially insane. That was until he showed us and I made him an un-insane. Naruto jumped ran into the water and fell in with a splash. I went into hysterical laughing and tried it myself. I managed to stay on the water for a few second before falling in and was made fun of by Naruto. We did this about a million times before Ebisu shouted.

"I don't know who you are but I will not forgive such shameless behavior."

He ran at an old man sitting down and looking through the wall at the naked girls. The old man did a hand sign and a huge toad appeared under him. The toad open it's mouth and it's tongue flew out and hit our Sensei, knocking him unconscious.

"Man, keep it quiet… Whatcha gonna do if I get caught?" muttered the old man.

Naruto and I jumped out of the hot bath and stood in front of the toad dude.

"Who the hell are you?" yelled Naruto.

"Thanks for asking! Mount Myobokugama's holy master Sennin, also known as Toad Sage, remember it!"

"Hey, Pervy Sage! He was supposed to train us, look what you've done to him!" I shouted.

"It's because he got in the way of my work."

"Work…?"

"I'm a writer, I'm working on a novel: Come Come Paradise."

"That's the book that Kakashi reads!" said Naruto. "That's a nasty book!"

"Anyway, what the hell do you mean by work? All you were doing was peeping into the woman's bath, you pervert!" I shouted. "If you were our age, then it might just be a prank but an old man doing that is totally a crime!"

"You fools! I'm not just a pervert, peeping gives me inspiration to write a better…"

"You liar!" shouted Naruto. "What a lame excuse! Now what are you going to do about our training?"

"Are you talking about that water walking?"

"You know about it?" I asked. "Then take responsibility and help us with our training!"

"No way! I hate disrespectful and rude brats!"

Naruto and I exchanged a look and nodded.

"That Come Come Paradise is so cool…" lied Naruto.

"Liar, the book is for adults only. Compliments will get you nowhere with me. I'm a Sennin, I'm not stupid enough to be fooled by shrimps like you two."

Naruto did a few hand signs and cried out "Sexy Jutsu!" and transformed into a naked girl with huge boobs. The Pervy Sage's nose started to bleed.

"I like you!" he said. "Wow, you're just my type of girl!"

"Then… will you supervise our training?"

"Yes, but on one condition."

"What?"

"In my presence, you must always be like that…"

Naruto turned back into his usual self.

"Inspiration, yeah right! You're just a pervert!" I yelled.

"I'm not just a pervert… I'm a big one!"

"Like there's a difference." said Naruto.

"Fine, I'll do it. Just do what you were doing earlier again."

"Alright!"

Naruto and I ran over to the hot spring we were practicing on. When we stepped in the water came up to our knees before we lost our balance and fell in. When we were out, Pervy Sage held us back from jumping back in.

"Both of you, shirts off."

Naruto did as he was told but I stayed there with my arms folded.

"April?"

"I'm not showing you anything you pervert!"

"Like I'd be interested in a 12 year old!"

I sighed and pulled my shirt up to under my boobs and tied a knot at the back to keep it in place.

"Good, now pull out your chakra again."

We did as we were told, I closed my eyes for more concentration. We stayed like this for a while until he told us to come over to him and raise our hands. When we did so, he struck us in the stomach, yelling "Five Part Unseal!" and we were thrown backwards.

"Now try it again."

We did as we were asked, no matter how much we wanted to knock his block off. When we stepped on the water, we didn't fall in. We were standing on the water. Naruto and I started jumping up and down on the water, shouting "It worked!".

"Alright you two, get over here. I'm gonna teach you a special technique."

We jogged back over to him, Naruto as exited as ever and I had to admit I was pretty impressed with our new "Sensei".

"But first, you need to understand something. Both of you have two types of chakra, have you ever felt a special chakra?"

I looked at Naruto, who looked confused, and decided to act as if I had no idea what he was talking about. To my surprise, Naruto wasn't as clueless as he usually was.

"Now that you mention it, it seemed like there was a time when my chakra suddenly appeared and I got really strong… Though I don't remember it very well." he said. "But I do remember that it felt different than normal chakra I release. It's hard to explain but if I put it in colour, I'd say that normally it's blue but this felt red…"

I starred blankly at my twin, he'd also used the Nine Tails' chakra. I thought he was only aware it was there, not that he had access to it or anything.

"Alright, it's getting late. Let's save the fun for tomorrow and I'll take this guy in. Meet me here tomorrow, bye you two." said Pervy Sage, kneeling down next to Ebisu.

"What?" complained Naruto.

The Sannin walked away with our ex-Sensei over his shoulder. I untied the knot in my shirt and handed Naruto his forgotten T-shirt and jacket, which he put on and we went home.


	17. Chapter 17

Naruto and I got home late and my brother went straight to bed. I had a yogurt before following him and when I entered the room, he was already out cold. I stood in front of the drawers, ready to get my night dress on, but now that I thought about it I wasn't that tired. I tiptoed out of the bedroom and went out into the deserted streets. I jumped up onto the closest rooftop and jumped to the next, and to the next…

I stopped on a roof with two fish statues. I giggled at the one in front of me, I personally thought that they were silly but I'm sure that they weren't there to make people laugh. I turned to walk towards the second statue, but stopped at the site of a figure sitting on it, observing me. The person jumped down and I was relieved to see it was Gaara and not some crazy serial killer. I wasn't sure how to greet him after that kiss, maybe he regretted it or maybe he wished we weren't interrupted. I couldn't tell which it was because of his emotionless mask so I waited for him to say something. I waited in silence and so did he. I tried searching in his eyes for some trace of emotion, but found nothing. I swallowed hard and put on a brave smile.

"Hi, Gaara." I said.

He stayed silent and starred at me. Then again, maybe a crazy serial killer wouldn't be that bad after all.

"Do you wish you'd never came over to my place?" I asked, scared of his answer.

Emotions appeared on his face as I felt a tear run down my cheek. He began walking towards me, slowly shaking his head. When he reached me, he held me tightly, still shaking his head.

"I will never regret that." he whispered and kissed me.

It was just a short kiss, but made my heartbeat speed up and made me dizzy. I smiled at him and my smile was returned. He looked so cute when he showed his feelings, it was sad he didn't do it often.

"I love you, April Uzumaki." he said.

My eyes widened and more tears ran down my cheeks.

"I love you too, Gaara Sabakuno." I sobbed.

I buried my face in his chest and hugged him back. He squeezed me lightly, probably confuse as to why I was crying. I knew they were happy tears, but he wasn't sure.

"_This is gross._" muttered Foxy. "_You can't do this gooey stuff when I'm here!_"

I ignored him and that just made him angry.

"___Stop it now! I have rights, you know!_"

"Get lost." I muttered.

"What?" asked Gaara and pulled away.

"No, not you. Foxy." I smiled, pulling him back.

He seemed relieved that it wasn't him I was talking to and lent down and kissed me. This time it was more than just a peck, he licked my lower lip and I opened my mouth to let him in. We explored each others' mouth, my chest squashed against his and pulling on his top's fabric for him to get even closer. His hands were in my hair, knotted.

"Am I interrupting something?" asked a male voice.

Gaara and I stopped kissing and turned to where the voice had come from. It was Dosu.

"Yes, you are actually." I snapped. "What do you want?"

He starred at Gaara.

"I was planning on getting you as you slept but now we can just fight here, then I'll have a higher chance of fighting Sasuke…" said Dosu, pulling up his sleeve and revealing his Sound weapon.

Gaara stood between me and Dosu, although he was the one targeted, he wasn't going to let this nutter harm me.

"I know about your Sand attacks, I wonder if it's faster than my Sound…"

"He gets thirsty during the full moon." snarled Gaara, stepping forward.

Gaara's sand started flying around himself, I couldn't see him. I ran to hide behind the closest fish statue as the sound of growling erupted into the silent night.

"What is this? What are you?" yelled Dosu.

Someone screamed, as was the sound of ripping tissues. I closed my eyes tightly and slammed my hands over my ears. I stayed like that for several moments until a hand rested on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Gaara covered in sweet and he was breathing heavily. I threw my arms around his neck and his arms snacked around my waist.

"It's okay, you're safe…" he murmured in my ear.

"What happened to Dosu?" I asked, grabbing on to him tightly when he tried to pull away.

"Let's just say he won't show up at the third exam." he said, rubbing my back. "You should go to sleep, sweetheart."

I pulled away with a smirk on my face.

"Did you just call me what I think you just called me?" I giggled.

He frowned.

"What?" he asked with a confused expression.

"Never mind… darling!" I sniggered.

He smiled, realizing what I was talking about. He brought me back to my apartment, gave me a last passionate kiss and disappeared into the dark streets. I opened the front door, went through and locked it behind me. The lights were on and a worried Naruto was sitting on the couch, starring at me.

"What are you doing awake?" I asked in an innocent tone.

"I'm the one asking the questions around here, young lady!" he shouted, jumped up from the sofa and stood over me with an annoyed expression on his face. "Where the hell have you been? I've been worried sick!"

"Young lady? You're not my dad, you can't act all tough and mighty around me, young man!" I yelled back.

I pushed passed him and walked into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me. I sat on my bed, arms crossed, and starred at the door with an irritated expression. Moments later, Naruto came barging in.

"Get lost! You're sleeping on the couch tonight!" I yelled.

"Fine! I'd rather sleep there than in the same room as you!" he yelled back.

He grabbed his pillow and quilt and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind himself. I opened the drawers brutally and put my nightdress on. I threw myself under the covers and started muttering about how annoying Naruto was. He also had started muttering, only loud enough for me to hear.

"Making me worried…! Young man…!"

"Shut up, Twin! I can hear you!" I shouted at the closed door.

"Then stop listening!" he shouted back.

The night went on like that, us yelling at each other through a wall. The next morning, Naruto apologized about what he'd said and I did the same. We went to where Pervy Sage had rendezvoused us and he took us to a waterfall, where three girls were splashing about in bikinis. He led us behind the bushes so that we had the water stream and so that he could spy on them without being seen.

"Now, I'm going to teach you the technique…" said Pervy Sage, still looking at the more or less naked girls.

"Face this way and say it, you pervert!" shouted Naruto.

"Are you serious about this? Just teach us already!" I added.

He turned around with an irritated sigh and knelt down in front of us.

"Before that, do you remember that talk we had about the two types of chakra? You know, the blue and red chakra."

"What about it?"

"You said you had incredible strength when you felt the red chakra. I want you to try and release that red chakra right now."

"Nothing could be simpler!" I said.

Naruto and Pervy Sage watched as Foxy's chakra started spinning around me, burning the air. I let it go and took a bow with a grin on my face. Pervy Sage's mouth was hanging open and Naruto was impressed.

"My turn!" he said.

He closed his eyes and stayed still.

"Well?" asked Pervy Sage impatiently.

"No, it's just my regular chakra."

"Geez… You have no talent." muttered Pervy Sage.

"Stop acting all high and mighty! I don't understand this red and blue chakra myself! What does that chakra have to do with this technique anyway?" shouted Naruto.

"Both of you listen. The technique I'm going to teach you requires much, much more than your normal amount of chakra so we need to be able to pull out and use the huge chakra that's sleeping inside of you. This special chakra that only you two have will become your greatest weapon, not using it would be a waste. There's no need to do the same type of training as the others. Each person has things they're good and bad at, you both have your own style. Your training, up until now, focused on producing and releasing a set amount of chakra and controlling it so you don't tire out. But with you large amount of stamina, you should focus on power before control. You two have two types of chakra and don't tire out easily, so you should train to release the highest amount of chakra possible and then use that to its capacity. When you do that there are tons of techniques and Jutsu you can use."

"Like what for example?" I asked.

"Like the one I'm about to teach you: Summoning No Jutsu."

"Summoning?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah! You sign a contract in blood with various life forms and call them forth with Ninjutsu when needed. It's one type of space-time Ninjutsu."

"Sounds awesome! Teach us quickly!" said Naruto, jumping up and down on the spot.

"Well, before that… Use up all your normal chakra with the water walking. You too, April."

"Why do I have to do that?" I yelled at the same time Naruto yelled "If I'm not careful, I could die!"

"It's to make it easier for you to release the red chakra and I'm watching over you, so don't worry. Now start!"

Pervy Sage went back to watching the girls run around as Naruto and I did as he'd asked us.

"You call this "watching over"?" muttered Naruto after half an hour.

Our pervert Sensei ignored him and kept on drooling over the girls on the other side of the bush. I felt dizzy and was having a hard time standing up in the water. I could see that Naruto was having the same problem. I was going to ask him if he was okay, but I fainted in exhaustion and went under the water. I opened my eyes and sat up. I was no longer in the water and Naruto was lying next to me and opened his eyes.

"Looks like you finally used up most of your chakra, I'm gonna teach you the technique now!" said Pervy Sage, who was leaning over us.

"Yes! I'm been waiting ages for this!" said Naruto.

"First, I'll show you how to do it so watch closely."

Our Sensei bit his thumb, making it bleed, wiped it on his other hand, performed a few hand signs, slammed his hand on the floor and shouted "Summoning No Jutsu!". The huge toad from yesterday appeared underneath him.

"Awesome!" I grinned.

The toad was holding a scroll with his tongue and placed it in front of my brother and I. Naruto picked it up and opened it.

"This is the contract with the toads that has been passed down through many generations. You write down your name in blood and under that you press your fingerprints in blood. Then, when you want to call to them, produce chakra and place down the hand you signed the contract with. The hand signs are "Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Sheep"."

Once Naruto had finished writing his name and pressing his fingerprints down in blood, I did the same.

"Your current state makes releasing the red chakra easier, give it a try."

"I already am!" said Naruto and he slammed his hand on the floor, shouting "Summoning No Jutsu!".

I fell into hysterical laughter when I realized that Naruto had summoned a tadpole. He turned to me with an irritated expression.

"You give it a try if you're so clever!" he shouted.

"Fine, I will."

I mimicked Pervy Sage's movements and cried "Summoning No Jutsu!". I summoned an ordinary toad, better than a tadpole but not better than Pervy Sage's huge toad. I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest.


	18. Chapter 18

The training went on for 15 days and there was still no progress. I was still summoning a ordinary toad and Naruto, a tadpole.

"No! How many times to I have to tell you, you morons? Release all the chakra in your body as if you're about to die!" yelled Pervy Sage for the hundredth time today.

"Shut up! I'm trying my best!" yelled Naruto.

"Don't call me a moron, you pervert!" I yelled.

"Once more." he sighed.

We repeated the Jutsu seven times until Naruto jumped up and down.

"Yeeeeessssss!" he screamed while leaning over the same tadpole as earlier.

"What's up with you?" I asked, walking over to see what he was so happy about, it couldn't be the tadpole.

"You die! You have no talent!" shouted Pervy Sage.

Naruto pointed to the small tadpole.

"Look closely, it has hind legs!"

Pervy Sage's and my sweat dropped, this was going to take forever.

Three weeks had passed since the beginning of the training and Naruto was now summoning tadpoles with arms and legs and I had managed to summon an even larger toad than usual. Pervy Sage was spying on some more girls in bikinis, this place is where they apparently came to swim everyday.

"At least pay attention to us!" shouted Naruto after summoning another tadpole.

Naruto collapsed to the ground, it wasn't the first time in these three weeks that he'd done so, but I still ran to his side as worried as ever. Pervy Sage got up, walked over to us and picked Naruto up.

"Follow me, April."

I nodded and walked beside him. He led me to a large crack in the earth, large enough for someone to fall in, and he put my brother down. I knelt down and shook him, he opened his eyes and I pulled him up.

"Where am I?" he asked, dazed.

"The training ends today. If you don't want to die then figure it out for yourself." stated Pervy Sage.

In milliseconds, he pushed Naruto and I backwards and we fell into the crack. I was screaming my head off, I was going to die. My twin tried to grab on to the rocks in vain. My brother… He was going to die too! I had to do something, I wasn't going to let anything happen to him. I called his name and he looked at me, despite the fact we were falling to our doom.

"The Jutsu! Use the Nine Tails' chakra on the count of three! One… Two… Three!" I yelled.

We bit our thumbs, wiped the blood on our hand, performed the hand signs and cried "Summoning No Jutsu!". Underneath us appeared a giant toad with a pipe in it's mouth and was wearing a blue happi vest. Naruto and I landed on it's head with a loud thud.

"I did it! Summoning No Jutsu a complet success!" yelled Naruto.

I raised an eyebrow at him and he swallowed hard.

"I mean, we did it." he corrected.

"That's better." I smiled.

"You lil' punks! Whatcha doin' on my head?" shouted the toad. "I finally get some fresh air and… What the hell is this?"

He eyed my brother and I with an angry look in his eyes.

"Hey punks, where's Jiraiya?"

"Who?" I asked.

"That perverted geezer, calling me to such a place. Even putting some weird punks on my head!"

"No, we summoned you. We thought you could help." I retorted.

"You two?… Gahahaha! You shouldn't lie kids, there's no way in hell lil' shrimps like you could summon me!" laughed the toad.

"You fat, croaking toad! How dare you say such things!" I yelled.

"Yeah, we're the ones who summoned you so we're your masters!" added Naruto with just as much volume.

The toad first looked shocked, but soon frowned in irritation.

"What the… Who the hell do you think you're talking to? Some dumb kids are saying they're the masters of Boss Toad, Gamabunta?… You want your head ripped off?"

"Ignore him, Boss Toad, everybody else does!" I said, winking at Naruto.

"Well… Calm down, then I'll make you my underlings. Be thankful!"

"Yes, Boss Toad!" said Naruto.

Gamabunta's tongue came out of his mouth and rapped itself around us and jumped up at full speed out of the crack. He landed where Pervy Sage was moments ago, but was no longer there anymore. He'd left us, we could of died. I was so killing him later! Gamabunta lay us on his nose and I sat up. I looked at Naruto, who was unconscious and I tried shaking him to see if he would wake up. When he didn't, I turned to the giant toad.

"He has to go to hospital, he's out of strength from calling me." stated Gamabunta.

I nodded and held on tight to the toad as he hopped to the hospital and held onto Naruto so he wouldn't fall off either. When we arrived, I slipped off his nose with my brother in my arms. Boss Toad jumped away, leaving me with an unconscious, heavy Naruto. I sighed and picked him up, bridal style, and walked into the hospital. I was greeted by three doctors and a nurse, they took Naruto and put him in a room. I followed them closely, but they closed the door on me, saying that they would send someone to get me when he could be visited. I started walking around the hospital halls and stopped when I saw Rock Lee doing pushups in a square garden. I walked up to him with a smile on my face.

"Hey Lee, what's up?" I asked.

He stopped, got up and smiled at me. It was only when he reached for it that I realized he was on crutches. I frowned at the objects and he noticed.

"I guess you haven't heard the news." he grinned, but there was sadness in his eyes.

"No, I've been so busy training these past three weeks that I haven't seen anyone apart from my brother and Pervy Sage."

He looked down and sighed heavily.

"What is it, Lee? What's the news?"

"The doctors say my days as a ninja are over..." he said, his voice broke.

My eyes widened in shock and horror, how could someone as strong as Lee, someone devoted and passionate about his dream, have everything taken away from him?

"But… Weren't you training just now?"

"I snuck out of my room, they can tell me it's all over but that doesn't mean I'll believe them." he smiled.

"You want a training partner?" I asked, grinning.

He nodded and both of us started doing pushups. He went up to 200 when I stopped at 67, that made me feel like a weakling. I watched him with admiration and cheered him on. A nurse ran up to us and started begging Lee to stop, it was only when she said that he was in no condition to train that I stopped cheering and started to tell him that that was enough for today. He ignored me completely and continued to count his pushups. Sakura and Ino ran to my side and started begging him to stop like the nurse. Lee stopped and collapsed on the ground, unconscious. I tried picking him up with the nurse, but Ino and Sakura told me that they would take care of him and that I should go him because I looked tired. I sighed and walked out of the hospital, going home. On my way there, I saw Kiba sitting on a bench with Akamaru sitting beside him. I would have just passed by, but he looked gloomy so I went to sit next to him, much to Akamaru's delight. Kiba raised his head to see who it was and then went back into his gloomy mode.

"What's wrong, Kiba?" I asked in a worried voice.

"Nothing…" he muttered.

"You and I both know that it takes more than nothing to make someone look as upset as you." I said.

He turned his head away from me and sighed.

"Come on, Kiba. What's bugging you? I want to help."

He gave me a suspicious look, then sighed.

"The girl I love still hasn't noticed me and is in love with someone else." he stated.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"That's it? I thought someone had died or something important." I laughed.

"This is important! And stop laughing, it's not funny!" he shouted.

"Kiba, you shouldn't worry. If she knew you loved her, she would give up on whoever it is she's crushing on now and go out with you more than willingly."

"Why do you think that?" he asked, out of his gloomy mode and seeing the positive side of life.

"Because you're cute, funny and nice. That, and you've got an irresistible puppy!" I smirked.

He stared at the ground, taking in what I'd said.

"So…" I said after a moment of silence. "Who is the lucky girl?"

He stayed silent, probably doubting his trust in me.

"Ino Yamanaka." he said, not meeting my gaze.

"No way! That means that the other guy is…"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"No way!" I repeated.

"Tell me about it."

I stared in front of me, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Kiba and Ino? Kiba VS Sasuke?… Kiba and Ino? This was juicy, really juicy. God, I couldn't wait to tell… Oh, I can't tell anyone. Greatest gossip ever and I can't gossip about it!

"So do you take it back then?" sadly asked Kiba.

I turned my attention back to him and out of my conversation with myself.

"Take what back?" I frowned.

"About Ino giving up on Sasuke and going out with me more than willingly."

"Oh, that… I dunno, she might secretly feel the same way."

"Out of 10, how likely do you think that's the case?"

I bit my lower lip and looked away from him.

"Maybe… 3/10." I admitted. "I could trick her into telling me, if you really want to know how she feels."

Kiba threw himself at me and gave me a bear hug, squeezing the air out of me.

"You'd do that for me? Thanks so much!" he said, still hugging me.

"If you don't let me breathe, I won't be able to do anything at all!" I managed to get out with what air I had left.

He quickly let me go and I took a big gulp of air.

"Sorry, I don't know my own strength." chuckled Kiba.

I smiled at him, glad he'd got his sense of humor back. I left him to think about his futur life with Ino and walked home. It felt weird being in my bed without Naruto to talk to me when both of us couldn't sleep, which was all the time. I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling. I was going to visit him tomorrow, awake or not, and bring him a ramen pocket. That will cheer him up for sure! I could even go see Lee while I'm over there, and maybe even Sasuke. With a bit of luck, I would bump into Gaara tomorrow. I frowned in my thoughts, was Gaara on the roof with the two fish statues? I jumped off my bed and ran out the door, locking it behind me of course, and ran towards the fishy rooftop. Once I arrived, I smiled at the site of a figure on the closest statue. It jumped down and walked towards me, but my smile vanished when the moon light shined on the person's face. It wasn't Gaara, it was Temari. I swallowed hard and took a step backwards with every step she took forwards. She stopped with an angry expression.

"What are you doing here?" she asked through her teeth.

I stayed silent, I wasn't going to tell her I was hoping to make out with her youngest brother, was I? I tried to find an excuse in vain. She looked like she wanted to rip someone's head off, mine to be more precise. When I didn't answer, she sighed in irritation.

"You know, I thought you and I could be really great friends until I discovered you were a lying piece of…"

"We still can be!" I interrupted her. "Just let me explain. I never wanted to leave you guys, but I was forced to."

She frowned, she wasn't angry but confused.

"What?"

"I owed someone a huge favor and he wanted me to participate in the Chunin Exams to help two of his assistants get information. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone, he'll probably track me down and kill me if he found out I'd tolled you."

Temari took in what I'd said, looking down. When she looked up, her frown had disappeared, so had the look of betrayal in her eyes. They were replaced by a smile.

"Over my dead body." she grinned.

She closed the distance between us and hugged me tightly. I returned her hug, tears in my eyes.

"Don't be such a cry baby!" she said, pulling back and wiping her own tears away.

I giggled and wiped mine away too. She looked up at the sky and sighed.

"It's getting late, Kankuro will be worried. Bye!" she said before running away.

I stared at the in the direction she went, not seeing her because of the dark. I turned my heels and ran back to my apartment. After changing into my nightdress, I hit the sack and fell asleep after a few minutes of starring at the ceiling.


	19. Chapter 19

I woke up early and got ready to go to the hospital, preparing Naruto's ramen pocket. I walked down the streets as fast as I could, not running in fear of knocking someone over. I stopped at a flower shop, thinking of buying flowers for Lee and Sasuke. I knew Lee would like them, Sasuke, not so sure. I was greeted by Ino and Sakura having an argument, a big one. I cleared my throat to get both of their attention, but instead they gave me a quick glance and went back to arguing. I sighed and walked over to them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Billboard Brow wants to take flowers to _my_ Sasuke!" stated Ino, not taking her eyes of Sakura.

"_Your_ Sasuke? He's mine!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

I rolled my eyes in exasperation, these two were impossible.

"Can't you share him?" I asked, crossing my arms.

They both turned to me with a look that said don't-you-even-think-that-! and I took a step back.

"Anyway, I would like three bouquets of six tulips, please." I said, changing the subject.

Both girls relaxed and Ino went to prepare my order and Sakura started looking at the rose section.

"Who are the flowers for?" asked Ino, handing me my bouquets.

"For Naruto, Lee and Sasuke." I smiled.

I quickly realized my error in revealing my intentions with Sasuke when Ino and Sakura froze at his name and their peaceful expressions turned to angry and betrayed ones. I ran out of the store and made my way to the hospital and, luckily, both Sasuke fans didn't follow me. I arrived and went to the desk where a nurse was browsing files.

"Excuse me, could you tell me in which rooms Naruto Uzumaki, Rock Lee and Sasuke Uchiha are in?" I asked.

"Of course." replied the woman and looked at her clipboard. "Mr. Uzumaki is in room 325, Mr. Rock Lee is in room 347 and Mr. Uchiha is in room… I'm sorry Miss, but Mr. Uchiha left the hospital yesterday with his Sensei."

"Thank you."

I walked to my brother's room first, obviously. He was still unconscious so I put the flowers in the vase on his bedside table. I sat down on his bed and stared at him for a while. The way he looked so tired, so fragile scared me. I didn't want to leave his side in case someone was to hurt him in his sleep. I sighed heavily and, despite my over protectiveness, left to go visit Lee. I knocked on his door and walked in, not bothering to wait for an answer. Lee was sitting up in his bed and smiled at me.

"April! How are you?"

"That's what I'm supposed to say!" I laughed, sitting on the edge of his bed. "I'm fine, you?"

"I have felt worse."

I nodded and held up his bouquet.

"These are for you."

"Thank you." he said, taking them and putting them in the vase on his bedside table. "Who else are you visiting?" he asked, eyeing the other bouquet in my hand.

"Well, I was going to visit Sasuke but he left the hospital yesterday. I've been to see Naruto, but he's still unconscious."

"I hope he doesn't miss the final exam."

"Don't worry, I'll punch him awake. He's up against Neji Hyuga, right?"

"Yes, Neji is a strong opponent. Your brother had better wake up soon to train hard."

I rolled my eyes. Naruto could take on anyone I could, and I could most definitely take on that destiny freak.

"You do not like Neji, do you?" asked Lee, reading my mind.

I shook my head fiercely.

"You should try to get to know him, he has been through a lot."

"So have I, but I don't act all superior and purposely piss him off!"

Lee crossed his arms over his chest with a frown on his face.

"Yes, you do."

"I do not!" I shouted.

"You made fun of him at the preliminaries, saying that his dick was small, thus making yourself feel superior when everyone laughed at him. Then you sprayed him with water, thus pissing him off." stated Lee.

I thought about how true that was and glared at him.

"Smart ass." I muttered, making him laugh. "I'll be nice to him from now on… But I'm only doing it for you!"

"When you are friends with him, you will be doing it for yourself."

"Are you friends with him?"

"We are rivals."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Then why the hell are you defending him?"

Lee simply shrugged and changed subject.

"Who are you up against?"

I sighed. No way was I gonna get him to answer and since he was in the hospital bed, I'll let him have his way.

"Dosu, he's a Sound ninja."

"I think he is creepy."

"Aren't they all?" I laughed.

Lee looked down.

"That Sand ninja is and he beat me. Be careful, please."

I placed my hand on his and smiled.

"You've got nothing to worry about."

I got up and walked to the door.

"He may have beat you, but you put up one hell of a fight!" I said without turning around.

I closed his door behind myself and walked out of the hospital. I stopped in front of Ino's flower shop and thought about what I'd promised Kiba. I took a deep breath and walked in. Luckily, there were no customers and no angry Sakura. I walked up to Ino who hadn't noticed me come in, she was day dreaming.

"Hey Ino, you look miles away." I said.

She let out a little squeal and almost fell over.

"April! What are you doing here?"

"Um… This is a shop."

She frowned and looked around.

"Oh! Sorry, I forget that sometimes. So, what can I do for you?"

I looked away thinking of a way to ask her this.

"Well, I was wondering…"

"Yes?"

"What do you think of Kiba?"

Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open.

"You've got a crush on Kiba?" she practically yelled.

"No! Don't ask questions or make any assumptions, just answer honestly."

"I've never looked at him that way to be perfectly honest." she frowned, thinking about it. "I guess he's pretty cute, he's really funny and I absolutely love his dog! I think I would go out with him if it weren't for Sasuke's hotness."

"You would?"

"Yeah. I mean, why not? He's got more or less what I'm looking for… Holy shit!"

"What?" I shouted, turning round and looking for someone with a weapon.

"I think I've just fallen in love with Kiba!" she yelled.

I sighed in relief that no one was attacking us and turned back to her.

"That's good, he's the one who put me up to this. Go see him, make out, get married and have lots of babies!"

I turned my back on a shocked and frozen Ino and ran out the shop, trying not to laugh. The streets were crowded, no surprise there, and I had to walk. Eventually, I got home and sat down on the couch. It was kind of weird having no Naruto to talk to, the apartment was emptier without him. I sighed and closed my eyes, that's when someone decides to knock on my door. I bet they were waiting for me to get comfy and when I was, they knock on the bloody door! I'm gonna do that to the person behind the door to see how they like it. I got up and marched to the door, opening it in one swift movement. All my previous thoughts were forgotten when I saw who was standing in front of me.

"Gaara, what are you doing here?" I asked, surprised at how happy I felt seeing him.

"I don't really know..."

I frowned, what a strange answer.

"Well, might as well come in then."

He walked through and I closed the door behind him. He went straight to the couch and sat down, I followed him and squiched myself next to him.

"I wanted to see you." he admitted after a moment of silence.

"Oh, that's so sweet!" I cooed.

"It's strange actually. I want to be with you, hold you, kiss you all the time and when you're not there, it's like there's this hole in my chest, making it hard to breathe. Is that normal, or am I going insane?"

I could feel my cheeks heating up as he said that. I placed my hands on either side of his face and pressed my lips to his.

"Perfectly normal." I smiled and pulled away.

"Did you meet Temari last night?" he asked.

"Yeah, I went to the fish statues thinking you would be there, wasn't expecting to see her. Why?"

"When she came back, she said she was with you and when she wouldn't say anything else, I thought she might have hurt you. That's one of the reasons I came here."

"Hell no! I'm untouchable since you taught me the Sand Coffin Jutsu."

He smiled, then looked around.

"Where's your brother?" he asked.

"Unconscious, in a hospital bed."

"How are you holding up?" he asked worriedly, rapping his arm around my shoulders.

"I'm fine, a bit lonely, but fine."

"If that's the case, you could come to my hotel room and have dinner with Temari, Kankuro and I." he suggested.

I frowned, thinking about it.

"Will Baki be there?" I asked, not wanting to see him after what I'd done.

He shook his head.

"Then I'd love to! What time do you want me?"

His eyes widened and a blush appeared on his cheeks. I looked at him with a confused expression and noticed a Pervy Sage look in his eyes. I slapped him on the arm.

"Not like that! What time do you want me to come over at your place?"

"Sorry, I knew what you meant, it's just the way you said it. Anyway, is 7 p.m. okay?"

"Yep!"

"I'll tell Temari and Kankuro. We're in room 53, in the Leaf Hotel." he said and got up.

"Um... Gaara? Are we going to tell them about us?"

He turned around.

"Us?"

"Yeah, us! Dating, kissing... Hello!"

"Well, we've never actually been on a _date_, but yes. I think we should tell them."

"Would you like to?"

"Would I like to what?"

"Go on a date with me."

He chuckled and came to sit back next to me.

"Would you like to go on a date with _me_?"

"What's that suppose to mean?" I asked.

His expressionless mask was on.

"You might not want to be seen with me." he simply stated.

"What are you on about? I will never be ashamed of being with you... and to prove it, I'm going to introduce you to my brother." I smiled.

"That won't be necessary."

"What? Scared he might bite your head off?" I joked.

He shook his head with a smile.

"See you at 7!"

I walked him to the door, gave him a kiss goodbye and closed the door. Dinner with the Sand siblings? This was going to be an unforgettable night. The rest of the day was uneventful and at 6,45 p.m. I locked my front door and walked to the Leaf Hotel, taking my time. I stopped in front of their door, hesitated and knocked. I didn't even have to wait, the second I'd knocked Temari swung the door open and pulled me into a big hug.

"Hey, April. How are you?" she asked, letting me go.

"Um... Fine, and you?"

"Great. You won't have to worry about eating crap food, I cooked." she smiled, proud of herself.

"You don't think too highly of yourself, do you Temari?" I smirked.

"I don't think so."

She dragged me inside and closed the door. I walked in when she told me to and saw Kankuro polishing his puppets and Gaara sitting on the couch, expressionless mask on. Temari came to stand next to me and cleared her throat.

"Where are your manners? Our guest has arrived!" she snapped.

Kankuro looked up from his puppets with a smile and started putting his stuff away. Gaara lifted his head at Temari's words and smiled at me and stood up to give me a big kiss on the lips. When he pulled away, I looked at Temari and she had her mouth open and her eyes wide, Kankuro was still putting his things away and hadn't seen anything.

"You... Her... What...?" stuttered Temari, shocked.

"Do you need to sit down, sis?" said Gaara.

Temari's eyes widened even more at the nickname Gaara had given her, that must have been the kindest thing he'd ever said to her. She slowly nodded and Gaara went to get a chair for her. When she sat down, she looked at her little brother and I.

"What's going on?" asked Kankuro with a clueless expression.

"Them... Together..." stuttered Temari, starring at us.

"Wow! Someone's lost their marbles!" laughed Kankuro. "Hi April, what's up? Temari told me everything, sorry I hated you."

"That's okay, I would've hated you too."

"Kankuro... Together!" said Temari, still shocked.

"Who's together?"

"Them!" said Temari, pointing at me, then at Gaara.

"Of course they are!" said Kankuro, rolling his eyes. "I think you've been cooking too much today, you should take a nap."

Temari frowned at that and stood up.

"I'm not tired or crazy, you idiot! They just kissed!" she shouted.

He looked at us, then at Temari, then back at us. His eyes widened.

"No way!" he finally said. "When did this happen?"

"Three or four weeks." stated Gaara.

I went red under Kankuro's and Temari's stare and more or less hide behind Gaara. A beeping sound came from the kitchen and Temari rushed in that direction, yelling "Food's ready!". The three of us sat at the table, Kankuro opposite me and Gaara seated himself next to me. Kankuro was grinning at me, a look in his eyes.

"Why are you starring at her?" asked Gaara, beating me to it.

The puppet master froze and the look in his eyes turned to fear, he swallowed hard and put on a brave face.

"No reason..." he said.

I frowned, they weren't still scared of him, were they? Gaara seemed to notice his brother's fear and looked offended.

"I didn't mean to sound threatening." he apologized. "I'm very sorry."

Kankuro's expression turned from a scared one to a shocked one. He must be amazed that his little brother, the one that had meant to kill him ever since he was born, was apologizing to him. Kankuro eyed me suspiciously.

"What did you do to him?" he whispered.

"Nothing!" I giggled.

"Then why is he being so nice to me? Did you use a Jutsu on him or something like that?" he asked, acting like Gaara couldn't hear a word we were saying.

"No, I didn't use anything. He's being nice to you because you're his brother and he loves you." I smiled.

He turned to Gaara, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but closed it again, then turned back to me.

"But seriously though, I won't tell Temari or anything like that." he smirked. "Just so I can use it on him when we're back at the Sand."

I giggled, he really could be silly sometimes. Gaara didn't seem to realize we were joking, he wasn't used to conversations, expressions, emotions... Kankuro was faster than me to reassure him.

"Don't worry little bro, we're just playing around. None of it was meant, apart from the love part. I... Um... Well, I..."

"Kankuro means to say that he loves you too, right Kankuro?" I said, receiving a thankful nod.

Gaara looked at his elder brother and smiled one of his very rare, but very beautiful smiles. Kankuro smiled back at his little brother, his eyes slightly watery. The moment was interrupted by Temari slamming a bowl of pasta on the table with a victorious grin.

"It didn't burn!"

"That's a first." muttered the puppet master, receiving a slap from his sister.

Temari served the food and we dug in. We ate in silence, they seemed to act like this was normal. Had they never had a conversation in Gaara's presence?

"This is delicious, Temari." I complimented, hoping to start some small talk.

"Thanks." she said, looking up from her food. "The sauce was invented by my mother, this is just a poor copy of it."

"Well, if that's the case, hers must be the stuff of legends. I've never tasted anything almost as good as chocolate!"

"Nothing beats chocolate to April's eyes." explained Gaara to his confused sister.

She starred at him as if he'd suddenly grown a second head, dropping her fork.

"Temari? Are you okay?" asked Gaara.

"Who are you and what have you done with my little brother?" sniggered Temari.

Gaara didn't seem to understand that she was kidding.

"It's me, Gaara."

Kankuro snorted and tried to keep his mouth full of food closed. He ended spitting it out onto his plate and laughed, almost falling off his chair. Gaara looked at his siblings with wide eyes and I let out a small giggle that I tried to disguise as a cough, unsuccessfully. I ended up laughing with Temari and Kankuro under Gaara's shocked and confused looks. My jaw started to hurt and I had watery eyes.

"_Having fun?_" hissed a voice in the back of my mind.

My laughter came to an immediately halt and my jaw locked. The three siblings noticed my stillness."_Don't tell me you thought you could get away with telling everyone about me._"

"April? Are you okay?" asked Temari.

I made a weak attempt to smile.

"Where's the bathroom?" I asked, not meeting their eyes.

"Down the hall, second left."

I stood brutally, almost knocking my chair over, and ran to the door. I locked it once I was inside and threw cold water in my face, hoping that I'd just imagined the voice.

I swallowed hard, no denying who this voice belonged to now.

"_Actually, I sort of did..._" I thought back, not wanting the three ninjas to think I was talking to myself.

"_Tell you what, I'm going to give you a second chance._"

"_And if I refuse?_"

"_I'm not exactly giving you a choice. It's either that or I eliminate all the people who are aware of your dealings with me, that means your dear little brother... and your boyfriend too._"

I swallowed hard, I could only imagine what he would ask of me.

"_What do I have to do?_"

"_That's better. I want you to help me kill the Third Hokage._"


	20. Chapter 20

I had stumbled out of the bathroom, alerting the three siblings. I had tried masking my horror with a smile but fooled none of them and said that I had to leave. Gaara had insisted on walking me home and when we were on my doorstep, I thanked him for inviting me, gave him a kiss goodbye and closed the door on his worried expression. I was now sitting on my bed, starring at nothing in particular, thinking about Orochimaru's assassination plan. He wanted my to kill any threat when he kidnapped the Third Hokage, he already had others working for him that would also make an appearance and create a shield around him and the Third, so Orochimaru could kill the old man with no interference. And to think that I'd agreed to this!

The next morning, I got up early to go see Naruto but when I entered his room it was empty. There was a fruit basket on his bed and he'd left his shoes and jacket behind, so I sat on the chair next to his bed and waited for him to come back. I only had to wait about ten minutes before he came in, followed by Shikamaru who froze at the sight of me, whereas my brother jumped on me.

"Hi sis!" he shouted.

"Hey, I was worried." I said, while he went to put his jacket and shoes on. "Hi Shikamaru." I added, turning to give him a smile.

He unfroze, nodding in response, and sat on the bed. He seemed uncomfortable, Ino must have told him everything about Foxy.

"So, are you ready for the Final Exam?" I asked him.

"Yeah, but I bet it'll be a drag." he muttered.

"Most thing are." I agreed.

Naruto leapt on the bed and sat on his pillow.

"When is it, again?" he asked.

"Tomorrow."

"Oh… Wait! What?" he yelled. "Tomorrow? But I'm not ready yet!"

I sighed, he was gonna stress all day and all night.

"Don't be so negative, Twin! You'll be fine, you're gonna kick that jerk's ass." I reassured him. "Plus, I'll be there to cheer for you."

His eyes sparkled at my words.

"Really? You'll cheer for me?"

"Of course, I will. That's what family's for, right?"

My eyes widened when Naruto sniffed.

"Are you crying?" Shikamaru and I asked in the same amazed tone.

"No!"

I rolled my eyes and Shikamaru sniggered. Naruto took deep breaths before getting off the bed and walking towards the door.

"I'll see you guys later, I'm training!" he shouted before disappearing out the door.

I sighed, he was going to be dragging himself to bed tonight. Shikamaru got up and I turned back to him.

"What are you doing now?" he asked.

"Nothing, I was suppose to stay with Naruto but I'm not in the mood for training."

"Wanna watch the clouds with me?" he asked, not meeting my gaze.

I smiled and agreed. He took me through the crowded streets, up some stairs and to a rooftop with a shaded bench and plants. Shikamaru went straight to the bench and lay down, and I mimicked him. I looked at clouds as they passed by, seeing different forms and shapes. I pointed up at one of them, getting exited.

"Look, Shika! It's a flower!" I said enthusiastically.

He looked at where I was pointing and chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just that Choji does that too. I think you two would get along quite well."

"Yeah, he seems nice."

"_Someone else I can scare the shit out of._" commented Foxy.

"_Don't be mean! My friends are yours, you can't go around scaring them or beating them up in Ino's case._"

"_Whatever…_"

"April?" interrupted Shikamaru.

I turned to look at him.

"Were you listening?"

"No, I was in the clouds. I'm so sorry, could you start again, please?"

"I said that the freaky Sand ninja tried to kill Lee this morning, but Lee's Sensei, Guy I think it was, Naruto and I stopped him."

I froze.

"You hurt Gaara?"

"No. Well, Naruto punched him but he didn't seem to be that badly hurt."

I sighed in relief, making Shikamaru frown.

"Do you know him?"

"Oh, I know him alright." I smiled.

"What does that mean?" asked Shikamaru, raising an eyebrow.

"As if you can't guess what it means." I said, looking away from him and back up to the clouds.

I heard him gasp but ignored it. He stayed silent, trying to breathe normally. I tried changing the subject and pointed up to another cloud with a wicked smile.

"Shika, it's you!" I giggled.

The cloud I was pointing to looked like a pineapple, reminding me of his spiky ponytail. He looked at it and chuckled.

"Nice one, April." he smiled.

He didn't mention Gaara again, he was more interested in the shapes of the clouds and was now pointing to them as well. We went to have lunch at Choji's favorite barbeque restaurant, I felt kind of guilty eating there after Shikamaru told me that Choji was in hospital and wasn't allowed to eat any of his favorite foods. We were in the middle of a conversation when Ino and her Sensei joined us. Their Sensei had brown eyes, short black spiked hair and a beard. He was also smocking a cigarette, I didn't know you could smock in restaurants.

"Hey, you two!" said Ino, grabbing the seat next to me as her Sensei sat next to Shikamaru.

"Hi, Ino. What's up?" I asked.

"We always eat here, sadly Choji can't eat barbeque today… That means we won't have to fight him off!"

The waiter arrived with what Shikamaru and I had ordered and asked the Sensei and Ino what they wanted. I starred at the amount of meat that was on my plate with wide eyes, they didn't honestly expect me to eat all of that!

"Asuma Sensei, have you been to visit Choji?" asked Ino.

"Yeah, he's not enjoying the hospital meals."

"No surprise there." muttered Shikamaru. "If it's not barbeque, it's not good."

They nodded in agreement. We cooked our meat, I burnt mine more than once and Ino ended up doing it for me. I gave half of what was on my plate to Asuma and Shikamaru, who took it more than willingly. Ino was telling me about the cutest guy coming to her shop to buy some flowers. She told me how he looked and how his voice was so manly. The boys in front of us looked bored even before she started, this obviously wasn't the first time a cute guy walked into her family's shop.

"He wanted tulips for his aunt who was sick! How sweet is that?" she babbled on, mostly to herself.

"Weren't you crushing on Kiba?" I interrupted.

She froze and Shikamaru and Asuma suddenly looked interested.

"Well, I am… but that doesn't mean I can't admire other boys from a distance!" she replied.

"Wait!" said Shikamaru. "Kiba _Inuzuka_? You like him?"

"What's it to you?" she snapped.

"Nothing. So the drooling-over-Sasuke phase is finally over?"

She glared at him, but decided not to answer.

"Sakura will be happy." he muttered.

"She isn't to know until I'm officially going out with Kiba!" she snapped.

"Hey, calm down!" said Asuma. "We're not telling anyone, right you two?"

Shikamaru and I nodded, God knows what she'd do to us if we were to tell! I could see that Shikamaru was still surprised by her choice, but shrugged it off by digging in to his meat. I ate another one of my burnt pieces and swallowed it with a shiver of disgust, it tasted horrible. Ino let out a sigh and cooked the rest of my meat, making sure it didn't burn. I thanked her and started stuffing my face, trying to finish before everyone else. I succeeded and looked at them with a grin and waited for them to finish.

I spent the rest of the day hanging out at Ino's flower shop, admiring the boys that came in and whispering insults when a pretty girl came in with them. It had started to get dark and I gave Ino a goodbye hug, she wished me luck for tomorrow and I left for my place. I was expecting to see Naruto either sleeping on the couch or stuffing his face with ramen at the dinning table. I giggled at that image, he was always funny, no matter how hard he tried not to be. A familiar voice ripped me from my pleasant thoughts.

"I see you've managed to keep your mouth shut this time."

I turned around and stood in a fighting stance. Kabuto was leaning against a wall in the shadows, if it weren't for his voice, I wouldn't have noticed or recognized him.

"What do you want this time? I agreed to help you with you plans, can't you leave me alone now?" I snapped.

"Easy, beautiful." he sniggered. "I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page and that you remember what you are to do."

"I'm touched by your concern but my memory is pretty good, so don't worry."

With that I started to walk off.

"You should know who else is in on the plan, so you know who you can trust."

I stopped and gave him a questioning look.

"The Sand and the Sound are in this together." he said. "Your precious Gaara knows what's going on, he's the Sand's most powerful weapon after all."

"Don't talk about my boyfriend as if he was nothing but a tool!" I yelled, turning to face him, Foxy's power making my eyes turn from blue to red and turning my nails to claws.

I growled at the man, glaring at him. He took a step back, like any sane person would if they saw me like this. His eyes narrowed and looked left, I followed his gaze and gasped when I saw who was standing there. Gaara had his arms crossed over his chest and was showing no expression. He looked at me and I got rid of Foxy's chakra, switching back to my normal appearance.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I was about to ask you the same question." he said in a cold voice and turned to Kabuto. "I thought we were to meet alone."

"So did I, but it doesn't matter. April isn't going to tell anyone, are you?"

I ripped my eyes off of Gaara's face and glared at Kabuto again. He chuckled and stepped out of the shadows.

"Baki and I have already met up and he reported back to the Kazekage."

"So you were the man he spoke of." said Gaara.

Kabuto nodded.

"There was a Leaf spy, but he was taken care of. Your Sensei will be back in the early hours of the morning for the Chunin Exams."

Gaara nodded and turned his heals, walking away. I glanced at Kabuto who had now disappeared and ran to stand in front of Gaara.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

He stopped, emotions appearing on his face.

"I didn't know you where in on it."

"You have to help me stop them!" I whispered.

He tensed at my words, his eyes widened in shock. That expression turned quickly to anger, he grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me.

"Are you completely insane?" he whispered harshly. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

I stayed silent which made him even more angry.

"This is my mission! You can't possibly expect the Sand's weapon to fail! Do you?"

His sand had started wrapping itself around me tightly. My eyes stayed wide, tears starting to run down my face. Seeing the tears, Gaara stopped shaking me, his sand returning inside his gourd. He pulled me against his chest, burying his face in my hair and wrapping his arms around me.

"I'm sorry… So sorry, April…" he whispered in a scared voice.

I held him gently and kissed his neck in response, before resting my head on his shoulder.

"I love you." he mumbled, tightening his grip protectively.

"I love you too." I smiled.


	21. Chapter 21

The Final Exam had finally arrived and my brother shook me awake that morning in excitement. I smiled at him when I decided to open my eyes, and he was already dressed and ready to go.

"Come on! There are important people who'll be watching our matches that are arriving!" he was jumping up and down. "There're loads of villagers cheering for them! Get ready and let's go!"

I stretched and sat up lazily in my bed. I glanced at his impatient look and sighed.

"You know what? Why don't you go without me and I'll meet you at the stadium." I yawned.

"Really?"

When I nodded, he grinned and ran out into the streets. The smile I'd faked disappeared when I couldn't see him anymore. I got out of bed and quickly got ready for the day, Gaara had agreed to retreat when the invasion would start.

I walked out of the apartment and locked the door behind me, I walked down the crowded streets filled with excited Leaf citizens. Everyone was going in the same direction, to where the Final Exam would take place. I should've been stressed like a normal person would be, but I knew that Dosu, my opponent, was killed by Gaara on the fish roof a while ago. I arrived just as they were about to close the doors. I stood between Shikamaru and Naruto, and noticed that Sasuke hadn't arrived yet.

"Hey, stop looking around and face the customers." ordered the Jonin standing in front of us. "In this main tournament, you guys are the stars."

It was only then that I noticed the cheering and I gasped when I looked up. Thousands of people were sitting in seats above us, it felt like I was a gladiator and they were the mad people who thought it was entertaining to see someone fight and be eaten by a lion. I swallowed hard. I looked in Gaara's direction and followed his gaze up to the Hokage and the… Kazekage. The Third rose from his seat and walked to the edge of the stadium.

"Thank you all for coming to the Hidden Leaf Chunin Selection Exam!" he shouted for everyone to hear. "We will now start the main tournament matches between the 10 participants who made it through the preliminaries. Please stay and watch until the end!"

With that the Jonin turned to us.

"Does everyone remember who they're up against?" he asked.

We all nodded and Naruto raised his hand.

"What?"

"Sasuke isn't here yet, what are you gonna do?"

"If he doesn't appear in time for his match, he will receive a default loss." he responded. "Alright guys, this is the final test. The arena may be different but the rules are the same as in the preliminaries, there are none. You fight until one of you dies or acknowledges defeat, but if I determine that the fight is over I'll stand in and stop it, got that?"

I accidentally yawned, receiving a deadly glare from the Jonin.

"Now for the first fight, Naruto Uzumaki against Neji Hyuga. The rest of you go to the waiting room."

As the rest started to walk away, I pecked my twin on the cheek.

"Kick his ass!" I encouraged, making sure Neji heard my comment and ran to join the others.

I ran up the stairs, bumping into the others in the process, and got to the balcony, not wanting to miss a second of my brother's match.

"Go Twin! You're the best, show that Hyuga who's boss!" I yelled.

"Why do you even bother? Encouraging is such a drag." muttered a lazy voice.

I looked at the pineapple haired Genin to my left and sighed.

"You're a drag." I retorted.

"Troublesome woman." he mumbled.

I suppressed a giggle and looked behind me to see Gaara walking up to us, he stood to my right and covered my hand with his. I glance at him from the corner of my eye, he was watching the match, his expressionless mask on. I resisted the urge to caress his cheek while staring at his pale skin, my eyes moved to his red hair, messy and wild. I gasped as the color reminded me of Orochimaru's plans, he heard me and looked me with worried eyes. I span round and ran out the back door. I quickly started to run up the wall with my chakra-enhanced feet, heading to the tallest tower, where I knew were the Third and the "Kazekage". I got to the roof and jumped in front of a shocked Orochimaru.

"April? What are you doing?" he yelled as I took out a kunai and aimed to cut the snake's throat, only to have the imposter grab my wrist and push me over the edge of the building.

"Run Sarutobi!" I screamed as I fell.

"_Don't worry, April. I've got your back!_" said Foxy.

I felt myself consumed by the red chakra and power. The tail that it had formed wrapped itself around the nearest pole, sadly only slowing down my fall, not preventing it. As I thought that all would be left of me would be a stain on the floor, I landed on something soft and hands helped me up.

"_Oh God, that was a close one!_" said Foxy, letting out a sigh of relief.

I looked up to find that my savior was Gaara, holding me still. He was looking at the two Kages, and watching as Orochimaru revealed himself. He grabbed the Third and dragged him up to roof, followed by his four bodyguards, who made a shield around the roof top. I swallowed hard, I knew that Gaara knew about the invasion plan, but he didn't know about the part where the Sound kills his father, the Kazekage.

"It's time for me to retreat." he whispered and lowered me to the ground.

He turned to leave, Temari and Kankuro running down the stairs to join him, but I grabbed his shoulder, and turned him to face me once more. Before he could ask what I was doing, I crashed my lips down onto his. It was short, but it was great. He pulled away and smiled at me.

"I'll see you soon and that's a promise." he said and kissed me again before retreating with his siblings on his heels.

Kakashi and Sasuke appeared in a poof of smoke and the raven saw his opponent running, and chased after him. I looked up at to see that all the audience was fast asleep and that some of the Shinobi were fighting off the Sound. A loud crashing sound was heard and even from where I was, I could see three giant snakes attack the village. I watched in horror as a small dog followed by Naruto and Sakura also chased after Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. I had to stop them from hurting each other, and so I ran after the group.

I ran through the forest, jumping from branch to branch, but I couldn't find them. I heard someone yelling and followed the noise, what I saw had me frozen. Sasuke was standing on a nearby branch and Sakura was attached to a tree trunk with sand pressing against her, but that wasn't what shocked me, what shocked me was the Nine Tails jumping over the trees, attacking a giant raccoon, a raccoon with Gaara on his forehead, unconscious. I watched as Naruto ran off the Fox's head to the raccoon's and delivered several punches and kicks to Gaara, who opened his eyes wide. When he'd woken, the raccoon turned to sand and they both fell to the ground. I jumped off the branch I was standing on and raced to where they'd landed. I used Foxy's chakra to increase my speed and eventually reached them, Naruto was lying inches away from Gaara, my Twin was unconscious. I ran to them and knelt down.

"He's still alive." said Gaara quickly.

I smiled at him.

"You two scared me, thank God this is all that happened."

"You see a worst case scenario?"

I shuddered at the thought, and he noticed. He squeezed my hand reassuringly and I brought it to my cheek. The moment was shattered when Sasuke ran over to us and stood next to Naruto, followed by Temari and a weakened Kankuro who stood on Gaara's side. The Uchiha glared at the obvious relationship between the redhead and myself. The raven held a fighting stance, mimicked by the two siblings.

"That's enough, stop it…" said Gaara, his voice now barely a whisper.

I lowered our hands as they turned to help him up. Kankuro lifted Gaara's arm over his head and held it there, standing up slowly.

"Your brother, he fights for the people he loves." stated Gaara, locking eyes with me. "He is strong because of it, and I shall do the same. I will protect the ones important to me, I will protect you."


	22. Chapter 22

It had been two days after the failed invasion, only it hadn't completely failed. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had been killed. All the Leaf Shinobi stood on the Hokage's Tower roof in the rain, in front of a table with a picture of him, flowers laying around it. We were all in black as we stood in front of his photo. Some were crying for their lost leader, their lost friend and their lost family member. Others were wishing that this was just a mistake, that the old man wasn't dead and that when they turned around, he would be there smiling like he used to. And then there was me, the traitor. I cried knowing that I could have saved him, could have warned him. Beside me was Naruto, he was holding back the tears I could see that were threatening to come out.

"April?" he asked, turning to me.

I gave him a questioning look and wiped away my tears. He hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't know how to express himself. He sighed sadly.

"Do you think that, if you and I were to die, people would cry for us?"

I starred at him in shock, I never expected for him to think of something like that. Like me, Tenten, Neji, Hinata, Sakura, Rock Lee, Iruka, Kakashi and Konohamaru stared at him with wide eyes. They probably thought his question was inappropriate, but not to me it wasn't.

"No, I don't think so." I stated, stunning them all. "I think that most people would be happy to get rid of us, it would be the end of the Nine Tailed Fox."

Tears ran down his cheeks as he looked away and at the ground. I put an arm around his shoulders, making him look up, his eyes full of sadness.

"I didn't say everyone, Twin." I smiled. "The ones that don't think that, our friends and family, will cry for us. There is always someone who cares."

He threw his arms around me and buried his face in my shirt, and cried. I rubbed his back as I joined him in crying.

"I'll cry for you, sis." he whispered in between sobs.

"I'll cry for you too."

* * *

It had been two days since the funeral and I was hiding my grief the best I could, taking it out on trees I used for training. It was 8 in the morning and I was training my butt off.

"A-April?" asked a timid voice.

I didn't bother turning around, I'd known Hinata had been there for a while already.

"Are y-you okay?" she asked after realizing I had no intention of answering.

"Fabulous!" I said, punching the tree a few times.

She came to stand next to me, just out of arm's reach. I stopped attacking the plant and turned to her. She was fidgeting with both her index fingers and was red in the face, she was nervous.

"What is it?" I asked between breaths.

"Um… I-I was wondering, d-do you th-think I should t-tell Naruto?"

I sighed, I knew what she was talking about. My brother was so clueless that he'd have to be told about Hinata's feelings, no way would he ever realize them. I nodded, but that only made her blush more.

"B-But I can't!" she whispered.

"Yes, you can! I'm sure he feels something too."

She looked down at the ground, still fidgeting.

"But h-he likes S-Sakura…" she said sadly. "He d-doesn't know I-I exist."

I sighed again, I wanted to help her but even I couldn't guess at my twin's feelings towards the young Hyuga. She needed to find the courage to tell him, to break out of her shell… and I knew just the person who could help me. I grabbed her hand and we ran back to the village in record time.

"April, w-where are we g-going?" she squealed as we got to the training grounds.

"I have an idea!" I stated excitedly.

As I had expected, Team Guy -without Lee- was training hard on the training grounds, and I dragged Hinata over to them. Tenten stopped sparring with Neji when she saw us and ran over, hugging both of us at the same time.

"What's up, you two?" she smiled.

"I need your help."

"A ninja should only stop his training if there is something life threatening at hand." stated Neji, looking pissed that I planned on taking his sparring partner away.

I bit my tongue, remembering that Lee had asked me to be nice with his rival, and seeing his current situation, I would feel guilty if I didn't listen to him.

"You are absolutely right." I forced a smile.

The four of them were shocked to see that I was being nice to him, Neji more than the rest.

"Only the _matter at hand_ is love threatening, so I take it she's excused!"

With that, I grabbed both girls and ran out of the training grounds before one of them had time to retort. When I stopped, Tenten was as confused as Hinata.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked, her hands on her hips. "You better have a good excuse for taking me away from my alone time with Neji."

"I need your help to get Hinata to build up some self-confidence!" I smiled, bouncing up and down on the spot.

Tenten's eyes sparkled in excitement, she loved a challenge.

"I'm so in! And I have the perfect idea."

"Let's hear it."

"Okay, we go on top of the Hokage Mountain and she screams until her voice breaks!"

Hinata made a small squeaking noise and looked terrified. I raised an eyebrow at her reaction, she was scared?

"Look at you, you're terrified!" giggled Tenten. "That means that this experiment should work."

She grabbed both of us and we made our way to the Hokage Mountain. Once we arrived, we had to hold Hinata, who was trying to escape. She was red and had tears in her eyes.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. I'll prove it to you, I'll go first!" I smiled reassuringly at her.

She gave me a small nod and I made my way to the edge of the cliff. I took in the view of the town and inhaled deeply before screaming at the top of my lungs. I lasted 10 seconds and Tenten ran up behind me, dragging Hinata with her.

"My turn!" she said and screamed as loud as she possibly could.

When she was done, we both turned to the tomato that had replaced our friend. We nodded encouragingly at her and she took a step forward. She stared at the Leaf, took a deep breath and screamed. Tenten and my eyes widened at the volume she had, we had our hands over our ears as a result of it. When she'd done, she turned towards us with a small smile on her lips. Out of the trees behind us came running Shikamaru and Choji, they both looked worried. They stopped in their tracks when they saw nobody was in danger.

"What's going on? Why are you three screaming?" asked a panicked Choji.

The three of us looked at each other, grinning like a bunch of criminals. To everyone's surprise, it was Hinata who answered.

"Oh, nothing. You wouldn't understand, it's a girl thing."

She didn't stutter! I looked at Tenten in shock, she was staring at the Hyuga proudly.

"Okay, but next time could you tell us when you're doing _girl things_? It's a drag running around and panicking for no reason." muttered Shikamaru, turning his back to us.

"Sure thing, Shika! See you around, guys!" I yelled at his and Choji's retreating form.

The day passed and soon, it was time for me to have dinner. I left my apartment and walked to Ichiraku Ramen. I was half way there when I saw Sasuke sitting at the edge of a lake, looking gloomy. When I was standing next to him, he simply looked up to see who it was and went back to staring at the lake. I sighed and sat down next to him.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked.

"What do you care?" he snarled, turning his head away from me.

"What about your parents? I'm sure they're worried."

He froze at my words. I waited patiently for an answer, and finally he turned his head back to my direction, a frown on his face and rage burning in his eyes.

"Is that some kind of joke?" he yelled.

I stared at him in surprise and confusion. I went over what I'd said in my head, but didn't find anything offensive about them.

"You don't know what happened to the Uchiha clan, do you?"

I shook my head and he turned his gaze back to the lake.

"I don't have parents. My clan was slaughtered by my older brother, Itachi, when I was only 7 years old." he said, his voice full of sadness.

I didn't move, now understanding what my words must have done to him. I felt guilty, I had to make it up to him.

"I'm sorry. How about I take you to Ichiraku's as an apology?" I grinned.

"Thanks, but if you're trying to go on a date with me, I'm not interested."

I giggled at how full of himself he was, making him look at me in wonder.

"Well nor am I! I've got a boyfriend so don't worry, I won't try anything."

He hesitated for a minutes before standing up and giving me a small smile.

"Sure, I'd love to."

I stood up and we went to the ramen restaurant. When we got there, we sat at the counter and ordered.

"April? Are you on a date?" asked Ayame.

"No! We're just friends enjoying a friendly meal!" I snapped.

"Yeah, of course you are." she smirked and went to the back room behind the Ramen Bar before I could retort.

Honestly, was everyone going to ask me that? Sasuke chuckled at our exchange, receiving a glare from me.

"Are you always like this?" he asked after finishing his bowl.

"Like what?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You know, crazy and nice."

Crazy? I wasn't… No, wait. Yes I was.

"I guess. What about you? Are you always proud and competitive?"

"No…" he said as if he weren't sure. "I mean, I don't want to be but my dad use to say that pride was everything. If I was more like you, I'd feel like he wasn't proud of me."

"But, if you were nicer, you'd have more friends and less enemies."

"Yeah, well, not everyone is perfect." he chuckled.

"_What? Did he just call you perfect?_" yelled a shocked Foxy.

"_Why do you say that as if it was impossible?_" I asked, narrowing my eyes at my bowl of ramen.

"_Perfect people don't go around wiping out a whole village! Don't yell at me, you asked._"

My glare turned into a stare and I couldn't help but remember what I'd done.

"I'm nowhere near perfect…" I mumbled. "I bet from a distance, most people would think that but if they knew me, saw what I've done…"

Sasuke shifted in his seat, confused by my sudden honesty. I looked up to him with sad eyes.

"I've lost my appetite." I said.

He nodded and took out some money to pay for the food even though I protested. We walked side by side in an awkward silence.

"You know, I didn't think Uzumakis could lose they're appetite." he smirked, trying to ease some of the tension.

I gave a light chuckle.

"Nor did I, I'm as surprised as you are."

He smiled at me, glad that I'd chosen to answer him rather than just stay depressed. We walked a bit more before reaching the intersection where he was to turn right and I was to turn left. We said our goodbyes and I walked back to where I knew Naruto was probably waiting. What time was it? He was going to kill me if it was really late.

"_Foxy? I don't suppose you have a watch in there, do you?_"

"_You know I don't! Besides, I don't need a watch to know the time, I use the stars and the clouds._ _It's 11.43 pm._"

"_Seriously? It's that accurate?_"

"_Not really, I just saw the time on someone's wristwatch as we passed them._" he snickered.

I rolled my eyes, that was just typically Foxy. I sped to the apartment, now aware of the time and the fact that I was in trouble. Oddly enough, when I arrived, Naruto was nowhere to be found and that worried me for about… until he got back. He arrived way past midnight, looking like he'd been denied of sleep for a week. He closed the door behind himself and lay down on the couch, completely oblivious to the fact that I was glaring daggers at him. Sure, at first I was worried sick, but now that I knew he was unharmed, I was pretty pissed.

"Where the _hell_ were you?" I asked through my teeth.

He started mumbling something, pause and mumbled some more. In the end, he just shrugged and fell asleep. I grabbed a blanket and a pillow for him, tucked him in and went to bed myself.


	23. Chapter 23

That morning, I was awaken by someone shaking me. My eyes slowly opened and leaning over me was Naruto. He was already dressed and had his backpack on. I frowned in confusion, was he going somewhere?

"April, quick! We have a mission with Pervy Sage and we were suppose to meet him at the gates five minutes ago!" he yelled.

I stared at him, letting the information sink in. When it did, I jumped out of bed, pushing him to the side in the process and ran to the bathroom. I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and brushed my hair in record time then ran back into the bedroom to get dressed after shoving Naruto out and closing the door. Thankfully, he had packed my bag for me so I grabbed it, grabbed him, grabbed the apartment key and ran to the village gates. We were supposed to meet him at 8 pm, it was now 8.45 pm according to Foxy's ability to see the time on a passer-by's wristwatch. When we finally got there, the Toad Sage looked really pissed.

"Where were you two? Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting?" he complained as we stopped in front of him.

"It was Naruto's fault." I stated, pointing an accusing finger at the blond. "He only woke me up to tell me, like, when we were already late."

Jiraiya sweatdropped and sighed.

"Whatever. Come on, let's get moving."

We started walking through the gates but someone pulled me back and they kept their hands firmly on my shoulders. Naruto and Jiraiya turned around, confused as to why I stopped. I turned my head to see who had the nerve to hold me back and discovered it was one of the Shinobi assigned to keep guard at the entrance to the village.

"Kotetsu, what are you doing?" asked my brother.

"She has no headband, she cannot leave the village on a mission without one." answered Izumo, who was standing next to his partner.

"What do you mean no headband? She's got a headband." stated Jiraiya, looking at the two as if they had three heads.

We all stared at the Toad Sannin in confusion.

"I do?"

The old man stared at me for a moment before he laughed. Naruto looked scared of the pervert, taking a step back.

"_I knew he'd lose it sooner or later._" sniggered Foxy.

I totally agreed with him, the guy was nuts. He calmed down after a while and pulled out a black Leaf headband proudly. The two guards sighed and returned to their post and I went to stand next to Naruto, who still looked freaked out by our Sensei. Jiraiya handed the headband to me and I took it with a proud grin plastered on my face.

"Sorry, I completely forgot about that small detail. Well, I think congradulations are in order; you are now an official Leaf Kunoichi!"

My grin widened at his words and I tied the cloth around my neck. The two were watching me, both were smiling at me. I felt really, really exited, which was a very, very bad thing. I heard Foxy mental slap himself, he remembered the last time I got exited over something, it was the first time I had ever tasted chocolate. One on the guards had snuck it in and after I'd eaten it I'd gone absolutely bonkers.

"_Oh God! Here we go again..._"

"Now listen to me maggots! I'm in charge of this operation so either follow my orders or die a horrible death!" I yelled in a leader-like voice with my hands on my hips.

They were staring at me with shocked expressions and I saw Kotetsu and Izumo turn red from trying to snigger silently. So they weren't taking me seriously, were they? I turned towards them, catching their attention.

"Making fun of your super leader is beyond disrespect! Tremble beneath my wrath and bow before me!"

I noticed that some villagers had stopped what they were doing and were watching us interact, I spotted Sakura and Ino among them.

"Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do? Make us die of laughter?" chuckled Izumo, making me turn my attention back to him.

"Please you two, don't encourage her." Jiraiya practically begged.

"I do not need encouragement from such weaklings. I shall spare you, but only because you are not worth my time!"

"_Your leader voice is really good, have you been practising?_"

"_Of course I haven't, such things come to me naturally!_"

"_Don't you dare use it on me!_"

"_Okay, I'm really sorry. Don't hurt me!_"

I smiled my angel smile at the two pissed off guards and waved to them as I started walking out of the gates.

"Bye guys! I'll see you when I get back!" I said in an innocent voice.

They stared at me dumbfounded as I left with Naruto and Jiraiya on my heels. I made sure I was in the lead until the village was out of site and I turned to the Sannin.

"Where exactly are we going?"

He chuckled in response and walked passed me and I walked along side Twin.

"Super leader, huh?" smirked the blond. "What was that about?"

"Shut up!" I huffed. "I go crazy when I'm exited, it's not like I can help it, you know!"

"I'm in charge of this operation!" mocked Jiraiya, trying in vain to mimic my voice but he just made it high pitched and squeaky.

I felt my face heat up and a vein on my forehead throb.

"We're going to meet up with an old friend of mine." he explained.

"By friend, do you mean girl? And by girl, do you mean _inspiration_?" I asked suspisciously.

There was a moment of awkward silence as we waited for the old pervert to respond, instead he ignored me and changed the subject.

"I'm gonna teach you a new Justu while we're looking for her!" he stated with fake enthousiasm.

Despite being totally ignored, I thought it would be good to learn a new Jutsu, I mean I only knew three; Shadow-Clone Jutsu, Devil Arms Jutsu and Sand Coffin Justu. Plus, I wasn't even allowed to use that last one unless I had no other choice or if Gaara gave me permission. And two -and a secret third- Justu wasn't the best a ninja could do. Naruto was grinning like Christmas had come early.

"Really? Really?" he all but yelled in the Sannin's ear. "What's it called? What's it do? What does it look like? Is it powerful?"

The white haired man thumped the blond on the back of the head, a way of telling him to shut up.

"You'll see soon enough."

A silence followed, and both of us walked behind the white haired man. Half an hour past and nothing had changed, I was starting to get bored.

"So about this woman we're looking for, what was her name again?"

"Her name is Tsunade Senju, she was my teammate."

Him refering to her in the past didn't escape either of our attention. I could see Naruto wanted to ask him what he meant but I stopped him with a shake of the head. It was probably personnal, non of our business unless he made it.

"Is she worthy of your inspiration?" I tried the question again.

Jiraiya simply shrugged, as if not interested. Which was weird.

"Why are you so hung up on me liking girls? Are you lonely, April?" he grinned.

I went red in the face and looked at the ground.

"Shut up." I muttered.

He laughed victoriously, wizzed around and pointed a finger at me. Naruto and I stopped walking, staring at the old fool.

"I knew it!" he cried. "April Uzumaki doesn't have anyone, that's why she's obsessed with _my_ love life!"

"For your information, I am nor obsessed with your love life, nor alone." I stated, crossing my arms over my chest.

Both boys stopped in their tracks and stared at me with their mouths hanging open. I was a bit offended that they found it hard to beleive that I had someone, but at the same time I was proud that I'd got away with it for so long.

"Who is it? Do I know him?" with every question, Naruto seemed to get more and more upset.

I sighed, there was no point in hidding it now.

"Yeah, you know him... It's Gaara."

There was a stunned silence, I was staring furiously at the ground and refusing to look up, even though I could feel their stares.

"Did I hear that right?" Jiraiya was having a hard time registering it.

I dared a glance at my brother and regreted it instantly. He was glaring at nothing, and looked pissed. His eyes met mine and he lost it.

"WHAT? ARE YOU INSANE? I WON'T LET YOU GO ANYWHERE NEAR THAT GUY AGAIN!"

I stared at him for a second before I blew it.

"YOU WON'T LET ME? WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? IF I WANT TO MAKE OUT WITH GAARA, I'LL MAKE OUT WITH HIM!"

"YOU'VE MADE OUT WITH HIM? WHEN? WHERE?"

"WHENEVER YOU WEREN'T AT THE APARTMENT!"

"I'm gonna kill him." he mumbled under his breath.

I raised an eyebrow, he would have to go through me before he got anywhere close to killing Gaara. I ignored his glares of fury and walked passed him, up to Jiraiya.

"Why don't you lead the way, _Jiraiya-Sensei_?" I smiled innocently.

He simply nodded and started walking, I followed behind and listened to my brother's muttering, who was walking a few paces behind me. We soon entered a town, where the old pervert led us to the hotel we were going to stay at for the night. After handing me the key to the room, Jiraiya ran off to flirt with some woman he saw not too long ago. Naruto and I walked into the room in silence, he closed the door as I plopped down on one of the beds. I closed my eyes to avoid his gaze, when he sat on the bed next to mine, I rolled on my side so I was turning my back to him.

"I'm sorry." he whispered.

"For what? Threatening to kill my boyfriend, acting like you're the boss of me, or yelling at me for no reason?" I snapped without turning around.

"All three... Why didn't you tell me?"

I sighed and turned to face him.

"Because I was afraid of your reaction. I don't want to have to choose between you two." I managed a grin. "Promise you won't fight with him next time you see him?"

He grinned with me and pretended to think hard about it.

"Promise!"

A knock on the door interrupted us and we both groaned.

"You get it, Twin. I'm tired." I sighed.

"So am I, you get it!"

I stayed on my side and stared at him, he mimicked my movements. They knocked again and I ran to get the door. He laughed victoriously and sat up. I threw the door open and yelled an apology.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, but I was busy and my _stupid_ brother was too _lazy_ to come and greet you!"

I caught sight of what they were wearing and a squeal escaped me. They both tensed.

"Oh my God! I absolutely love your coats, you should be called the Fashion Brothers! Or the Cute Fashion Brothers." I added, seeing the first guy's face.

"You already have a boyfriend! Remember?" called Naruto from his bed.

I blushed furiously at his words, this guy wasn't cute enough to cheat on Gaara, no one was. Though studying his face, he seemed familiar.

"Sasuke?"

The name escaped my lips, the man standing in front of me narrowed his eyes dangerously and grabbed my arm.

"April Uzumaki, you and your brother are coming with us." sniggered the man behind the first.

Was I going mad or was that guy... blue? And where the hell was Jiraiya when you needed him?


End file.
